The Halfbloods read The Lightning Thief
by WishingWell414
Summary: After the Battle of Labyrinth, Percy and some of his friends are told they can change the future. How you may ask, by reading some of his most embarrassing thoughts out loud for the whole world to hear. The gods enter later.
1. I Accidentally Vaporize my PreAlgebra T

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson or any of the characters, I'm not Rick Riordan. **

**This takes place in the Battle of Labyrinth Chapter 19 "The Council Gets Cloven" **

**Chapter 1**

****"I Accidentally Vaporize my Pre-Algebra Teacher"****

"I couldn't see Nico, but after a few minutes of walking I saw a glow up ahead. At first I thought Nico had lit a torch. As I got closer, I realized the glow was a ghost. The shimmering form of Bianca di Angelo stood in the clearing, smiling at her brother. She said something to him and touched his face—or tried to. Then her image faded. Nico turned and saw me, but he didn't look mad.

"Saying good-bye," he said hoarsely.

"We missed you at dinner," I said.

"You could've sat with me."

"No."

"Nico, you can't miss every meal. If you don't want to stay with Hermes, maybe they can make an exception and put you in the Big House. They've got plenty of rooms."

"I'm not staying, Percy."

"But…you can't just leave. It's too dangerous out there for a lone half-blood. You need to train."

"I train with the dead," he said flatly."

Those were the last words he said to Percy as all of a sudden a bright white light sucked them into the ground.

Percy Jackson woke up with the feeling that someone had run over him with a car. His head was pounding and he felt like crap. But other than that he was fine, physically speaking. He slowly got up and realized that someone was on the floor next to him.

"Oh my gods, Nico! Oh wake up! Please don't be dead. Please don't be dead. Please don't be-"

"I'm alive you idiot, now get off me before my ribs break!"

"Oh." Percy muttered sheepishly "Where are we?"

"How should-" whatever Nico was going to say was cut off by the sound of screams.

Landing in the middle of the room was a blond girl with stormy grey eyes, a red head with green eyes, a girl with short black hair with electric blue eyes, and a boy with curly brown hair with the legs of a goat.

"Oh my gods, I think I cracked my head open!" The black haired girl yelled

"Where are we?" the blond girl muttered before turning to look around. When she saw Percy and Nico her eyes widened. "What did you do?"

Her question was never answered because write than 7 more people fell out of the sky, or was it the ceiling?

"What the Hades? What the heck are we doing here?" A tall and big girl said looking around dazedly.

"Brother!" yelled a big boy whose face couldn't really be seen.

"Tyson, what are you- Ow! That hurt!" yelled Percy as a stack of hardcover books hit him in the head knocking him down on to the floor.

"What the heck is this?" the blond girl said picking up what fell on Percy's head.

"Their books Annie bunny, or have you not read enough to recognize them?" said a boy with brown hair, blue eyes, and a mischievous smirk. The boy next to him who looked almost exactly like him except he was a little shorter snorted loudly.

"My names Annabeth, Travis and I know what they are but what are they doing here with us!" Annabeth hissed at Travis

Percy took one of the books from Annabeth's hand and read it aloud. "Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian. Why are their books named after me?" he said to no one in particular

"I know right, Percy's a nobody there should be books named after me!" the girl with short black hair and blue eyes said.

Ignoring the comment Annabeth read the title of the books "Percy Jackson the Lightning Thief, Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters, Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse, Percy Jackson and the Battle of Labyrinth, Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian."

"Wait, there's a note.

Dear Percy, Nico, Thalia, Annabeth, Grover, Rachel, Connor, Travis, Clarisse, Chris, Beckendorf, Silena, and Tyson,

Please read these books they contain all of Percy's quest, 4 are from the past and 1 is from the future. They will help you change the future into a better one, and because this amuses me. If you chose not read the books or try to get out of this room the books will disappear and you will be trapped in here forever. Your Dyslexia will not be in affect in here. By the way be free to say anyone's name, you're in the middle of no where, nothing will find you here. Food, bathrooms, and a place to sleep have been provided for you. And you will not be missed because while you remain here time will be frozen.

From,

The Future

P.S. try not to kill each other when you're trapped in here, I mean taken against your will." Nico read

"I say we read, the sooner we read the sooner we can get the hell out of here." Clarisse grumbled

"Yeah I'm sure it'll be great to see inside Percy's mind." Rachel smirked

"Not like there's anything in there." Thalia teased

"Oh shut up and read." Percy grumbled to Thalia before grabbing the first book from Annabeth's hand and tossed it to Thalia.

**Chapter 1 "I Accidentally Vaporize my Pre-Algebra Teacher" **Thalia read in her best reading voice.

"What is up with the title?" Beckendorf asked

No one answered but Grover and Percy shared knowing looks.

**Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.**

"No one ever does." Chris said

**If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now. Believe what ever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.**

"That's not very good advice." Grover said frowning.

"When has seaweed brain ever given good advise?" Annabeth said teasingly.

"Hey! I'll have you know, I give great advice!" Percy protested.

"What about that time you told me if I cover myself in peanut butter and run around in the woods wearing only a tutu and a coconut bra, a girl would ask me out?" Connor asked

"Or when you told me to tell daddy he should stop wearing the same shorts all the time." Tyson said

"Okay I get it I give bad advice, just read please."

**Being a half-blood is dangerous.**

"Tell me about it." Every half-blood in the room said.

**It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.**

"Thank god it hasn't happened to any of us yet." Silena said

"I don't know I wouldn't mind if Clarisse went away for a while. If you know what I mean" Travis said

Clarisse responded by throwing one of the books at Travis.

**If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great.**

"Why would a normal kid be reading this?" Rachel asked

"Well your reading this aren't you?" Annabeth said

**Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened.** **But if you recognize yourself in these pages—if you feel something stirring inside—stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before **_**they **_**sense it too, and they'll come for you.**

"No the best thing to do is get to camp as soon as possible." Annabeth said

"Oh give me a break, I was like 11!"

**Don't say I didn't warn you. **

'You didn't warn me." Nico said

"Oh shut it."

**My name is Percy Jackson. I'm twelve years old. Until a **_**few **_**months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York. Am I a troubled kid? **

"Very." Everyone in the room said except for Tyson and Percy

"I am not troubled!"

**Yeah.**

"Ha, you even agree with yourself." Thalia said

**You could say that. I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan— twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art**

"Wow that must be wonderful." Annabeth said with a faraway look in her eyes.

"What sitting on a hot, sweaty bus, with a bunch of insane kids?" Percy asked

"No visiting the museum."

**to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff. I know—it sounds like torture. Most Yancy field trips were. But Mr. Brunner,**

"Chiron?" Annabeth whispered to Percy.

"Who else?"

**our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes. Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee.**

"I don't know if Chiron would like that description." Chris said

**You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.**

"That's kind of sad." Clarisse said

"What, that every teacher makes me fall asleep?" Percy said

"No, that not every teacher has an awesome collection of weapons."

**I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.**

"So of course you got in trouble." Annabeth said

**Boy, was I wrong. See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway. **

Everyone was to busy cracking up at the last line to make comment about that.

**And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim.**

More laughter was heard around the room.

**And the time before that... Well, you get the idea.**

"Aw, I wanted to hear more about Percy's fieldtrips." Tyson pouted which looked odd on his face.

**This trip, I was determined to be good. All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit,**

"No, please tell me she's not in the story." Grover groaned

"Okay, she's not in the story." Tyson said

"Really?" Grover said cheering up.

"No."

"What kind of name is Bobofit? It sounds like something a gorilla would do." Chris snorted

**the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.**

Ews could be heard all around the room.

"Actually they're quite good." Rachel said

"I'm so glad I'm not mortal." Thalia said scrunching her nose up in disgust.

**Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled.**

"Wow, it's nice to know that you think so much about me, friend." Grover muttered

"Sorry." Percy said sheepishly

**He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life**

"Ah, that would be fun." Silena sighed

"Why you don't like P.E.?" Chris asked

"Hate it." Silena replied

**because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria**

"You gave your position away for enchiladas?" Annabeth question

"Can you blame me?" Grover asked

"Yes. Yes, I can."

**. Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death**

"Is that even legal?" Thalia said frowning

"No."

**by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.**

"Aw, but where's the fun of that." Travis said

"Yeah, you should have just hit Bobo, who cares about suspension?" Clarisse sneered

"It's Bobofit." Percy replied

"I know."

**"I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.**

"Please, it'll be a favor to all of us." Clarisse said

**Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."**

"Yay, we could be Peanut Buddies!" Tyson said clapping his hands which sounded like an earthquake was going on.

"Oh great." Grover said enthusiastically while shooting Percy a "Help me" look

**He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch. "That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat. "You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."**

**Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there.**

"Why what, happened?" Annabeth said panicking

"Aw, is little Annabeth worried about her boyfriend?" Thalia said pouting

"Yes, I think she is." Nico said causing both Annabeth and Percy to turn the color of tomatoes.

**In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.**

"Ooo, what happened, do tell." Connor and Travis said excitedly clapping their hands together like 3 year olds.

**Mr. Brunner led the museum tour.**

**He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.**

**It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.**

**He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a **_**stele, **_**for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.**

**Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket,**

"Teachers really shouldn't wear leather jackets, it's creepy." Silena said

**even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.**

"Wonder, what she did to her?" Grover muttered sadly to Percy

**From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn.**

"Uh, how could people like her exist?" Thalia said

"Technically, she's not a human." Percy said

Whats were heard all around the room.

"No! I mean she's so evil she's not a human!"

"Nice save." Grover snickered.

**She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.**

"Uh, I hate teachers who do that." Connor groaned

"And how many teachers do you know, do that?" Beckendorf questioned

"Well…none, but…I've got nothing." Connor said

**One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight,**

"That's just torture!" Nico yelled

"What? Staying up till midnight and erasing workbooks?" Rachel asked

"No, I mean doing nothing but stare at math." Nico said shivering

"Amen." All the boys in the room agreed

**I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."**

"See! What's up with that?"

"What Annabeth? I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about?" Percy said smirking

"I hate not knowing things." Annabeth grumbled

**Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.**

**Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said, "Will you **_**shut up**_**?"**

"Yes, somebody finally put her in her place." Clarisse yelled getting up to high five Percy.

Percy after a few seconds reluctantly high five her.

Clarisse finally seeming to realize what she did glared at everyone in the room.

"What happens in this room stays in this room."

"I don't know, I'm pretty sure the camp would like to hear how Clarisse was nice to Percykins for once." Travis said smirking

Clarisse glared even harder.

**It came out louder than I meant it to.**

"Busted." Nico sang

**The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.**

**"Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"**

**My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."**

**Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?**

**I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it.**

"Wow, seaweed brain actually paid attention." Annabeth said

**"That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"**

"Is it just me or is it kind of weird that this would be the question you get asked?" Nico said

**"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied.**

**"And he **_**did **_**this because ..."**

**"Well..." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god,**

**and—"**

"God?"

"Sorry! I didn't know that the Greek Gods were real than, I was a kid, give me a break! Stop glaring at me!"

**"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.**

**"Titan," I corrected myself. "And ... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead.**

"How did the guy mistake a rock for a baby?" Nico said

"We he wasn't exactly the brightest crayon in the box if you know what I mean." Thalia said

**And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters—"**

**"Eeww!" said one of the girls behind me.**

"What's so gross about that, you would think people have never seen a Titan barfing up his children?" Travis asked

Everyone choose to ignore him and in some case (Connor) nodded in agreement.

**"—and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."**

**Some snickers from the group.**

"Why is everyone snickering Percy got it right?" Tyson said frowning

"They're probably just snickering for seaweed brain's lack of description." Annabeth explained

**Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"**

**"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"**

"Well mostly because there's Greek monsters attacking us everyday and we're in the middle of a war which is led by the Greek gods and they guy who barfed up his children." Thalia said

**"Busted," Grover muttered.**

**"Shut up," Nancy hissed her face even brighter red than her hair.**

"I wish I could have seen that." Connor sighed.

"Yeah it was really funny." Percy agreed

**At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.**

"Are you sure it's not just because he's half horse?" Nico asked smirking

**I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."**

**"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld.**

"I wish his remains would have stayed their." Percy muttered and everyone nodded in agreement.

**On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"**

**The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.**

"Boys are doofuses." Thalia said

"Since you are a hunter who could probably shoot an arrow through my skull I'm not going to comment on that." Connor said

**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."**

**I knew that was coming.**

**I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"**

**Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go— intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.**

"I'm pretty sure he's actually older than a thousand years old." Beckendorf commented

**"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.**

**"About the Titans?"**

**"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."**

**"Oh."**

**"What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."**

**I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard.**

"Aw is wittle Percy angry that his teacher pushes him so hard?" Connor asked pouting pretending to wipe a fake tear away.

"Yes he is. I think Percykins needs a hug." Travis sobbed reaching towards Percy in an attempt to hug him.

"I hope you get hit by coconut in your sleep." Percy hissed

**I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!'" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever **_**lived, **_**and their mother, and what god they worshipped.**

"I wish my teachers did that, class would be so much more fun." Rachel said

**But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C— in my life.**

"None of us have ever made it pass a C in our lives, except for maybe Annabeth." Chris said

"No I got a B- once." Connor said

"That doesn't count you copied off the kid sitting next to you." Travis complained

**No—he didn't expect me to be **_**as good; **_**he expected me to be **_**better. **_**And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.**

**I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral.**

"He probably was." Thalia snickered

**He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.**

"Mmn lunch, I'm hungry. Do any of you have apples?" Grover said rubbing his stomach.

"Why would we have apples." Percy asked

"Ow!" Tyson yelled "An apple just fell on my head." Tyson said before offering the apple to Grover

**The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.**

**Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York State had been weird since Christmas.**

"Ah, nothing better than a good ol' fight between Zeus and Poseidon." Chris said

"What?" Nico asked

"Zeus' lightning bolt was stolen and he thought that Poseidon had stolen it." Annabeth answered

**We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.**

**Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers.**

"Those poor pigeons." Rachel said

"Nah, they were just happy, they got food." Grover said

**Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse,**

"Filthy thief." Silena said shaking her head

"Hey I'll have you know that we are plenty clean." Connor said

**and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.**

**Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from **_**that **_**school—the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.**

"That's rude, Percy you should apologize." Annabeth scolded like his mother

"But it's true and who am I going to apologize to?" Percy pouted

"The book."

"But-"

"Do it."

"I'm sorry."

"Whipped" Nico sang quietly causing snickers from all around the room.

**"Detention?" Grover asked.**

**"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean—I'm not a genius."**

"We all know that Percy." Annabeth said as if she were talking to a 3 year old.

"Shut up."

**Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"**

"Sorry." Grover muttered sheepishly

"It's okay."

**I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.**

**I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.**

"Aw, you're such a mama's boy." Clarisse teased

"I know, it warms my heart." Silena said truthfully

**Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized cafe table.**

"I want one, please, please, please." Nico begged to no one in particular.

"No." Percy said in a commanding voice as if a father scolding a child.

"Of course." Connor and Travis said

"Ha, Ha." Nico grinned sticking his tongue out at Percy. Everyone else watched the whole thing amused.

**I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends—I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists—and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.**

"I'm going to kill her." Annabeth growled

"I'll help." Thalia said which was followed by more plans of how they were going to kill the "evil, ugly red cow".

**"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.**

Laughter was heard around the room at the description.

"I officially love your descriptions." Thalia laughed wiping a few tears away that came from laughing so hard.

**I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.**

"A wave?" Nico asked confused

"Yeah happens every time I get angry or need to use a lot of power." Percy said

"For me it's the sound of thunder." Thalia said

**I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"**

"The Tattle Tail!" Tyson yelled pointing his finger at the book as if it had just committed the worse crime possible.

"I don't know, I'd scream for help if someone pushed me into a fountain." Rachel said

**Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.**

**Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see—"**

**"—the water—"**

**"—like it grabbed her—"**

**I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again.**

"Ya think?" Rachel questioned

"No I don't believe he does." Annabeth answered causing Percy to pout.

**As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now, honey—"**

**"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."**

"Oh my gods how stupid could you get?" Clarisse asked

**That wasn't the right thing to say.**

**"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.**

**"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. **_**I **_**pushed her."**

**I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.**

"Why are you trying to cover him unless… oh I get." Annabeth said

"What, what do you get?" Nico asked "I want to know." He whined

**She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.**

**"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.**

**"But—"**

**"You—**_**will**_—**stay—here."**

**Grover looked at me desperately.**

"Well at least you tried." Annabeth said to Grover who had his head in his hands.

**"It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."**

**"Honey,"**

"She could have just dropped the honey thing." Percy muttered. God he hated her.

**Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "**_**Now**_**."**

**Nancy Bobofit smirked.**

"You should have wiped that smirk off her face." Clarisse said

**I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare.**

"Yes, I'm sure it must have been horrifying." Nico snickered

**Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.**

**How'd she get there so fast?**

"Oh." Everyone in the room seem to have finally gotten it.

"We should have known, Percy can't go a day without being chased by monsters.." Beckendorf said

**I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.**

**I wasn't so sure.**

"Why didn't you run? It's so obvious she's a monster."

**I went after Mrs. Dodds.**

**Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.**

"That must have been a pretty good novel if he didn't notice any of that." Annabeth said raising her eyebrows.

**I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.**

**Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.**

"I wish she was going to make me buy a new shirt." Percy muttered darkly making everyone nervous.

**But apparently that wasn't the plan.**

**I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section.**

**Except for us, the gallery was empty.**

"How did you not know that something was wrong?" Thalia yelled

**Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.**

"Wow, you're slow." Rachel said "I'm not a half-blood and even I know that's a monster."

"Give me break, I thought that none of this existed, I thought monsters were only in stories and fairytales." Percy said getting annoyed

**Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it...**

**"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.**

"Why is she still calling you honey, she's about to rip your head right off your body and feed it to hellhounds." Nico yelled

**I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."**

"That's the safest thing you can do when a women asks you a question, agree." Connor said which earned him a smack in the head.

**She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"**

"Get away with what." Nico said confused

**The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.**

"No I don't think it's pure evil, probably more I'm going to rip out your internal organs than evil." Grover said

**She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me. **

"Oh you'll be surprised what she could do." Thalia said

**I said, "I'll—I'll try harder, ma'am."**

**Thunder shook the building.**

**"We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."**

"What did they find out?" Nico asked to an equally confused Thalia

**I didn't know what she was talking about.**

**All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room.**

"Nice." Connor said moving closer to Percy to high five him.

"Thanks."

"How much did you make?" Travis asked

"Enough." Was all Percy replied

**Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on **_**Tom Sawyer **_**from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.**

"You, should read the book, I'm pretty sure they have Greek versions of it." Annabeth said

"Of course I will, wise girl." Percy said to Annabeth before turning around to shake his head at everyone else.

**"Well?" she demanded.**

**"Ma'am, I don't..."**

**"Your time is up," she hissed.**

**Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.**

"Alecto?" Nico asked

"Who else?" Percy answered

**Then things got even stranger.**

"Nah, teachers turning into terrifying monsters who want to eat me is just a normal day for me now." Percy said waving it off like it was a fly

**Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.**

"Riptide?" Nico asked

"No, it's just another pen that can turn into a celestial bronze sword and is currently in my pocket right now." Percy said sarcastically

"I was just asking a question, geez." Nico said turning a little red.

**"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.**

**Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.**

**With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword—Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

**Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes.**

**My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.**

"Wimp." Clarisse snorted and almost everyone in the room nodded in agreement.

"Hey, I'd like to see how you would react if a monster attacked you and you had absolutely no training at all." Percy said

"Better than you." Thalia snorted

**She snarled, "Die, honey!"**

**And she flew straight at me.**

**Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.**

**The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. **_**Hiss!**_

**Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.**

"Interesting description but I think it's more of a cheese being put into a paper shredder." Beckendorf said

**I was alone.**

**There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.**

"Wow, I can't believe your still letting the mist affect you." Thalia said

**Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.**

**My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.**

"Magic Mushrooms, really? That's your explanation. I'm disappointed." Connor said

**Had I imagined the whole thing?**

**I went back outside.**

**It had started to rain.**

**Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

"Who's Mrs. Kerr?" Silena asked

You'll see." Grover responded

**I said, "Who?"**

**"Our **_**teacher.**_ **Duh!"**

**I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about.**

"The mist is working on seaweed brains puny half mortal brain." Annabeth said when there was questioning looks.

Percy decided to ignore that.

**She just rolled her eyes and turned away.**

**I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.**

**He said, "Who?"**

**But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.**

"You need to learn how to lie better." Connor said

"I know." Grover sighed

**"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."**

**Thunder boomed overhead.**

**I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved.**

"This obviously means he moved." Rachel said

**I went over to him.**

**He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."**

"See that's a good lie." Connor said

"Yeah but he's had like thousands of years of practice." Grover whined

**I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.**

**"Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"**

**He stared at me blankly. "Who?"**

**"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."**

**He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"**

"Well that was a weird chapter." Thalia said handing the book to Annabeth.

After reading the next title Annabeth snicker "Oh, trust me it gets weirder."

**Please, please, please review**

**-WishingWell414**


	2. Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson or any of the characters, I'm not Rick Riordan. **

**I'm a bit disappointed that I didn't get as many reviews as I hoped I would so hopefully this chapter will be better. But I'm glad you all liked it. Please review. **

**Chapter 2**

"**Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death"**

"**Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death" **Annabeth read

"The socks of death, that sounds pathetic. Death should be something that people fear not laugh at and buy in cheap stores." Nico said in a dangerous voice

"No one cares." Thalia said a creep out

Ignoring the comment, Percy said "You know it amazes me, how much my "friends" care about me."

"Well, you're still alive aren't you?" Annabeth said getting annoyed

"And how many nights I've stayed up wishing that is false." Clarisse sighed sadly

**I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly.**

**This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle.**

**For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr—a perky blond woman**

"Woo, was she hot?" Connor asked wiggling his eyebrows

"She was like 40 years old!" Percy yelled obviously disturbed

**whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip—had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas.**

**Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho.**

"What's so weird about that, you are a psycho." Thalia said as if she were genuinely confused

"I am going to pretend I did not hear that." Percy said like a 3 year old and stuck his fingers in his years.

**It got so I almost believed them—Mrs. Dodds had never existed.**

**Almost.**

**But Grover couldn't fool me.**

**When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, and then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying.**

"Dude, that's like the number one rule in lying you don't hesitate." Connor said

"No, that's the second rule, the first rule is to never look left." Travis said huffing

Annabeth continued to read before a fight broke out.

**Something was going on. Something **_**had **_**happened at the museum.**

"Nooooo, absolutely nothing happened, just like right now we're not in a room forced to read Percy's thoughts." Thalia said sarcastically

**I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.**

"I hate bad dreams." Rachel said her voice sympathetic

Almost every half-blood in the room nodded in agreement.

**The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood.**

"Yeah, I'm sure your fishy senses were telling you that your beloved daddy was in trouble." Nico snorted

"Yeah and my fishy sense are telling me right now to beat up a certain son of Hades right now." Percy

"I'd like to see you tried." Nico snorted as if he found this amusing

**One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.**

"Its fine, if the gods want to fight but they really should leave mortals out of this." Rachel said frowning

"Well, do you want to be the one who goes to a 20 foot god who could squish you like a bug under their foot and tell them to leave humans out of their fights?" Annabeth asked

There was no response to her question.

"I didn't think so." Annabeth said before continuing to read

**I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time.**

"Yes, and we all know how a cranky Percy is like." Beckendorf said and everyone nodded in agreement.

"What's that suppose to mean?" Percy asked confused and a little annoyed

**My grades slipped from Ds to Fs.**

"I've never seen what an F looks like." Annabeth stated as if this were the first time she ever heard the word.

"Of course haven't." Clarisse muttered to low for anyone to hear

**I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. **

"Oh, good did you manage to get a couple of good punches in?" Clarisse asked

"I didn't actually hit her, she's a girl." Percy said

"Wimp."

**I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.**

"Well, that's good you got to miss class." Connor said trying to look at the bright side of things.

"Yeah, I spent half of the day doing nothing except for starring at a wall in the hall way with no one except my thoughts, it was great." Percy mumbled sarcastically

"Well, if you want to look at the down side of things." Connor huffed

**Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests,**

"Well that's rude." Silena stated

**I snapped. I called him an old sot. I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.**

"Sot?" Tyson asked taken back

"It means, drunk, stupid, or fool." Annabeth said sounding like a dictionary

**The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.**

"It's okay Percy, there are better schools." Tyson said patting Percy on the back which almost broke his spine.

**Fine, I told myself. Just fine.**

**I was homesick.**

"Aw, you're so sweet being homesick like that." Rachel cooed causing Percy to turn red, while snickers were heard around the room and Annabeth glared at Rachel.

**I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.**

"Gabe." Percy and Grover growled

"I'm guessing you don't like him?" Silena questioned

"The man's an asshole who's going to rot in the Fields of Punishment." Was all Percy replied which made everyone wonder what he did that was so bad

**And yet... there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view** **of the woods outside my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees.**

"I love the woods." Grover said blissfully

**I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend,**

"Thanks, you're a great friend too." Grover said truthfully

Annabeth snorted loudly when she read the next line

**even if he was a little strange.**

"Forget what I said." Grover said but there was a teasing tone in his voice that told Percy he wasn't really mad

**I worried how he'd survive next year without me.** **I'd miss Latin class, too—Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.** **As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for.**

"You should have studied because you wanted to, not because you wanted to impress someone." Annabeth said frowning

"We're not all you, wise girl." Percy smirked

**I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him.**

"That's because it is." Thalia said

**The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the **_**Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology **_**across my dorm room.**

"How dare you treat books with such little respect!" Annabeth yelled outraged

"I'm sorry, I picked it up." Percy whimpered cowering behind Nico who tried to move

**Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon,**

"Even I know that, Chiron is spelled with an i and Charon is spelled with an a." Rachel said

"Yeah and Chiron is a centaur who tries to help handsome young heroes like myself and Charon is a creepy dude who leads them to their… death." Travis finished awkwardly

"I know now." Percy said huffing

**or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.**

**I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.**

"Uh, I hate that feeling." Travis said shivering

"And how would you know what that fells like?" Percy asked raising an eyebrow

"Lets just say, prank gone wrong." Travis replied

**I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. **_**I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.**_

"That' got to be tough, someone putting so much faith into you." Silena said her voice sympathetic

**I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.**

**I'd never asked a teacher for help before.**

"Why teachers are there to help you." Rachel said

"He's a boy." Was Thalia's response

**Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.**

"Chiron knows you tried." Annabeth said her voice surprisingly soft.

'Um… thanks?" Percy said slightly confused

**I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.**

"What's he still doing in his office?" Rachel asked

**I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said,**

_**"...**_ **worried about Percy, sir."**

"Someone's eavesdropping." Travis sung

"You naughty boy." Connor said ruffling Percy's hair causing everyone to stare at the two children of Hermes in amusement…and annoyance

**I froze.**

**I'm not usually an eavesdropper,**

"Of course, you aren't." Grover snorted

"I'm not thought." Percy pouted

**but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.**

"What's so hard about that?" Nico asked

"You don't count." Percy said

**I inched closer.**

**"... alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the **_**school**_**! Now that we know for sure, and **_**they **_**know too—"**

**"We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more."**

"Which still hasn't happen yet." Annabeth teased

"Hey, I am plenty mature!"

"Of course you are." Annabeth said tapping him on the head like a child

**"But he may not have time. The summer solstice dead line—"**

**"Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."**

**"Sir, he **_**saw **_**her..."**

"But Percy's small pea like brain probably won't figure it out." Clarisse said

"Well my small pea like brain is bigger than yours." Percy yelled back

"You do realize you just called your brain small and just made one of the top 10 worst comebacks ever, right?" Nico said cutting in before Clarisse could say anything

**"His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."**

**"Sir, I ... I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."**

"What did you fail?" Nico said confused

"You'll find out." Grover said grimly shooting Thalia an apologetic look.

"It's okay, I'm back now." She said patting him on the back when no one was looking

**"You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall—"**

"Well that was cheerful!" Nico said happily as if someone had just told him he won one million dollars

**The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.**

"Way to be inconspicuous." Beckendorf snorted

**Mr. Brunner went silent.**

**My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.**

**A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.**

"Why did he bring an archer's bow to a building full of kids?" Rachel yelled

"I don't know maybe a few days ago a 50 year old lady turned into a monster that resembles a bat than tried to kill one of her students?" Clarisse said annoyed by the girl.

**I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.**

**A few seconds later I heard a slow **_**clop-clop-clop, **_**like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door.**

"No, not an animal. Half an animal." Tyson said proud to notice the difference

**A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, and then moved on.**

"There's something that confused me, why couldn't Chiron with his horsy senses find me?"

"Horsy sense?" Annabeth asked raising an eyebrow

"Just answer the question."

"Well he wasn't looking for you and you live at the school so your scent is probably all over the place." Annabeth replied easily

**A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.**

**Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."**

**"Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn ..."**

**"Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."**

"Wait you've repeated several grades right?" Connor asked

"Only to get new half-bloods." Grover said not liking the way Connor had said it

"And you've taking all the exams right?"

"Most of them." Grover said not liking where this conversation was going.

"Oh good. Can you give me the answers?" Connor said producing a paper and pen out of thin air.

"No."

**"Don't remind me."**

**The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.**

**I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.**

"Things always seem to take forever when you find out something that you didn't want to find out." Nico said

**Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm.**

**Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.**

"Which he obviously hasn't been doing." Travis said

"We know, Travis we just read about it!' Annabeth yelled

**"Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"**

**I didn't answer.**

**"You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"**

"Well he just heard his best friend telling his favorite teacher that he might not make it alive to next fall but of course he's fine." Nico said snorting loudly

**"Just... tired."**

**I turned so he couldn't read my expression, and started getting ready for bed.**

**I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.**

"Don't if you pretend you imagined the whole thing than you'll never get to camp half-blood and I'll never be able to fill your bag with shaving cre-I mean give you an hearty welcome to the camp." Connor said

"First of all you're talking to a BOOK, b-o-o-k! Second of I've already been at camp and you already fill my sleeping bag with shaving cream and last you're talking to a BOOK!" Percy yelled

"Hmn… you said book 2 times." Connor said after a few seconds

"Oh my gods."

**But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.**

**The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam,**

"Three hours! What kind of test takes three hours?" Travis yelled horrified

"Chiron's test!" Percy yelled annoyed, he really wanted to strangle Connor and Travis right now.

**my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled,**

"Dyslexia?" Thalia asked but before Percy could answer Nico cut in.

"No, he couldn't spell the words because the unicorns he doodled on his paper kept telling him the wrong answers… of course it was dyslexia!" Nico yelled irritated, he just wanted to get through a sentence without someone commenting. "Annabeth please continue reading."

**Mr. Brunner called me back inside.**

**For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.**

"Oh trust me, if he found out you were eavesdropping you wouldn't be in school." Grover said

**"Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's ... it's for the best."**

**His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me.**

"I'm sure he didn't mean to embarrass you." Grover said sympathetic, the only reply he got was a grunt

**Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.**

"I hate that girl." Tyson said surprising everyone, Tyson rarely hated anyone, not even monsters "She pick on Percy." He said sadly

**I mumbled, "Okay, sir."**

**"I mean ..." Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."**

"He meant that you belonged in camp half blood, with your family." Annabeth said reassuringly when she saw Percy frown at the words.

"Thanks." Percy said grinning at Annabeth

**My eyes stung.**

"Aww, is it little Percykins sad that his teacher tell-"

"Shut up, Connor!" Percy yelled cutting him off

"Sissy." Clarisse muttered quietly

**Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.**

"I would have cried if I were you, after all my hard work and the teacher tells me I didn't do well enough, even if Chiron did mean something different." Rachel said sympathetic

"I wouldn't have cried, the whole class was looking!" Nico said as if she had just told him to jump off a cliff

**"Right," I said, trembling.**

**"No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say ... you're not normal, Percy.**

"We all knew that." Thalia said smirking

"Just like we all know that a certain 6 year old daughter of Zeus, was doing a production of Little Red Riding Hood, and she really had to go to the bathroom so she ended up having an accident on stage." Percy finished while everyone else laughed like maniac

"How did you find out about that?' Thalia glared

"I have sources-" Percy was cut off when Thalia out him in a very painful headlock "Annabeth continue now!" he managed to chock out

**That's nothing to be—"**

**"Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me."**

"Percy don't you know it's rude to interrupt." Travis said putting his hand over his heart, everyone else, but Connor just rolled their eyes

**"Percy—"**

**But I was already gone.**

**On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.**

"That's not very neat, you should always fold them neatly before stacking them on top of one another." Silena said

"Yeah, I'll remember that the next time I have to…pack." Percy finished

"Good." Silena finished brightly

**The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were **_**rich **_**juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.**

"Really so a God is a nobody?" Rachel asked amused

"I didn't know about any of this, give me a break." Percy said

"Well, your mom isn't a nobody." Annabeth said, Percy simply shrugged

**They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.**

"Well, that's nice." Beckendorf commented

**What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall.**

"That's less nice." Beckendorf muttered under his breath.

**"Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool."**

**They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.**

**The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had,**

"Stalker much." Clarisse muttered

"I was suppose to protect him and besides with Percy's luck an explosion could have went on in the Greyhound." Grover said

"True."

"Hey my luck is not that bad!" Percy argued

"Oh please if there was a God of bad luck it would be you." Annabeth snorted

**so there we were, together again, heading into the city.**

**During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen.**

"That's because I did expect something bad to happen." Grover said than under his breath he said "And something did happen."

**Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. **

"I wish that was what I was worried about." Grover muttered

**But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.**

**Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.**

**I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"**

"You must've given Grover a heart attack, when you said that." Chris said through his laughter

"Yeah you should have seen his face!" Percy said laughing a long

**Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha—what do you mean?"**

**I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.**

"No, Percy! You must never confess about anything!" Connor cried

"Yes you must take it to your grave!" Travis yelled

Ignoring them as usual Annabeth continued

**Grover's eye twitched. "How much **_**did **_**you hear?"**

**"Oh ... not much. **

"Yeah, not much you just heard everything, but not much." Thalia said sarcastically

**What's the summer solstice dead-line?"**

**He winced. "Look, Percy ... I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers …"**

"He heard everything you don't need to lie anymore." Rachel said

**"Grover—"**

**"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and ..."**

"You're a really, really bad liar." Clarisse said to Grover

Annabeth snorted when she read the next line, oh Clarisse was going to love this.

**"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."**

"Aww, look Clarisse is like Percy." Connor teased

Clarisse reached out and pushed Connor off the couch he was sitting on.

"Oh gods, someone's on their time of the month, ow I think you broke my ass!"

"Time of the month?" Nico asked

"You know Aunt Flo is visiting for the week, Mother Nature's gift to women, little friend, you know?" Annabeth said

"No I don't."

"Nico I have a question for you, wear do babies come from?" Percy asked

"Heaven?" Nico said innocently

"Well Percy, I think this is a job for a loving cousin who is willing to help an innocent little boy." Thalia said patting Percy on the back

"No, no, no, no, no, I think this is a job for a lovely girl cousin of the innocent little boy." Percy said but after seeing Thalia's glared, he quickly changed his mind. "I'll do it."

"Nico we're going to have a talk after this chapter."

"Okay." Nico replied completely unaware that after that talk he would be scarred for life

**His ears turned pink.**

**From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer.**

"What did you give Percy?" Tyson asked confused

**The card was in fancy script, **

"Why is the card in fancy script, you guys are all dyslexic so shouldn't it be easier to read?" Rachel asked thinking about this for the first time

"Dionysus probably does it on purpose." Thalia said

**which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like:**

_**Grover Underwood**_

_**Keeper**_

_**Half-Blood Hill**_

_**Long Island, New York**_

_**(800)**_ _**009-0009**_

"Why is there a phone number if we're not allowed to use phones?" Percy asked

"How should I know, ask Chiron." Annabeth said

"Well, you usually know everything so…"

**"What's Half—"**

**"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um ... summer address."**

**My heart sank. **

"How is that possible?" Tyson asked

"Its an expression, Tyson." Percy replied

**Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.**

**"Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion."**

"I don't think Grover has a mansion." Chris said smiling with amusement.

"Well I know that now." Percy said

**He nodded. "Or...or if you need me."**

**"Why would I need you?"**

"Harsh." Thalia said

**It came out harsher than I meant it to.**

**Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. **

"How can you blush all the way down to your Adam's apple?" Connor asked

"The same way that Percy turned red when someone mentions the time that he was running and his pants fell down, right in front of Annabeth, see that's the look!" Grover yelled pointing to Percy who was the color of a tomato

**"Look, Percy, the truth is, I—I kind of have to protect you."**

**I stared at him.**

**All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me.**

"I never did get to thank you for that." Grover said

"Well it's never too late." Percy said smirking

**And here he was acting like he was the one who defended **_**me.**_

**"Grover," I said, "What exactly are you protecting me from?"**

"Monsters, maniacs, angry gods…must I continue?" Grover asked

**There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs.**

"Wouldn't mortals be creep out if black smoke and the smell of rotten eggs came out of the middle of no where?" Silena asked

"They'd just think the Greyhound was breaking down." Annabeth replied

**The driver cursed and steered the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.**

**After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.**

"I'm hungry, can we eat after this?" Tyson asked rubbing his stomach

"Sure. I'm kind of hungry myself." Percy said

**We were on a stretch of country road—no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars.**

"People really shouldn't be throwing garbage out of their car-" Grover started

"We can talk about how people should recycle and all that stuff when we eat, but right now I just want to finish this chapter." Annabeth said

**On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.**

"Mmn, fruit, so hungry." Rachel said

"We'll eat after this chapter…if you guys ever let me finish." Annabeth said

**The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of blood red cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice**_**. **_**There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.**

"Oh…so that the why the title is…" Rachel said

"Does this mean you're going to…?" Nico finish awkwardly

"Probably." Percy said his face masking any emotion he was feeling

**I mean these socks were the size of sweaters,**

"Who are the socks for? Bigfoot, Godzilla?" Chris snorted

"Godzilla doesn't exist, it's obviously for Bigfoot!" Connor yelled

"I was joking."

**but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.**

"Why blue, I don't like the color blue, it should be purple." Silena frowned

"I like blue." Thalia said offended

**All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.**

"Well don't they sound like they belong on the cover of teen magazine!" Beckendorf said sarcastically

"But Percy just said their ancient." Connor said

"I was being sarcastic."

**The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.**

Silence filled the room.

**I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.**

**"Grover?" I said. "Hey, man—"**

**"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"**

"They are." Travis said trying to lighting their mood

**"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"**

"Not funny." Annabeth snarled

**"Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."**

**The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors—gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. **

"They carry shears with them?" Rachel asked

"They're the Fates." Nico said

**I heard Grover catch his breath.**

**"We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."**

**"What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."**

"Percy just get on the damn bus!" Annabeth shrieked

"Calm down, I'm still here aren't I?" Percy said calming her down

**"Come on!'" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.**

**Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that **_**snip **_**across four lanes of traffic.**

"Well that's creepy." Thalia said

**Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for—Sasquatch or Godzilla.**

"Looks like Chris thinks like Percy too." Connor teased

**At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.**

"Didn't you think it was just a bit suspicious that as soon as the three old ladies left the bus came back to life?" Annabeth questioned

"No, I thought it was just a coincidence."

**The passengers cheered.**

**"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"**

**Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu.**

Tyson let out a sniff, he obviously knew what happened

"Hey its okay I'm still alive aren't I?"

**Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.**

**"Grover?"**

**"Yeah?"**

**"What are you not telling me?"**

"That was forward." Clarisse commented

**He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"**

**"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like ... Mrs. Dodds, are they?"**

"They're worst, much worst." Grover said

**His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds. He said, "Just tell me what you saw."**

**"The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn."**

"You saw too much." Silena whispered

**He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost—older.**

**He said, "You saw her snip the cord."**

**"Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.**

"Of course it's a big deal, you just saw the fates!" Annabeth exploded

**"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."**

**"What last time?"**

**"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."**

"Everyone in here has made it pass 6th grade, Grover." Percy commented

"And I've never been happier that you're right." Annabeth said

**"Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"**

**"Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."**

"Let me guess, you broke your promise." Annabeth sighed

"You know me so well." Percy grinned

**This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.**

**"Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked.**

**No answer.**

**"Grover—that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"**

"Yes it does." Beckendorf said sadly

**He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.**

"I was not looking at you like that! I was deciding where I should bury the body." Grover yelled trying to lighting the mood even though he was screaming inside.

"I'd prefer New York and maybe you could put daisies on my coffin." Percy said joining in

"Daisies?" Annabeth asked

"They're the only flowers I know." Percy said

"Chapters done, we can eat now…and Percy I believe you and Nico need to talk." Annabeth said putting the book down

**Please, please, please review. The more reviews I get the faster I update.**

**Hope you like it and thank you to those who have reviewed. And for those who haven't it takes like 5 seconds, please review**

**-WishingWell414**


	3. Grover Unexpectedly Loses his Pants

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson or any of the characters.**

**Please, please, please review, now on to the story.**

**Chapter 3**

"**Grover Unexpectedly Loses his Pants"**

"So Nico how much do you know about this?" Percy said awkwardly, thinking of the 1,000 places he rather be, for example in boiling hot lava. Seriously wasn't Hades the loving father of the _innocent_ child suppose to be giving him this talk, actually wasn't there a class for this or something.

"About what?" Nico replied innocently

"Okay, we're going to talk."

"Talk? Oh I get it."

"You do, thank the gods." Percy breathed

"Yes, your having trouble with the lovely ladies in this room especially a certain blond one and you have come to your cousin who is so much better looking than you and smoother with girls than you."

"No! And no one says smooth any more." Taking a deep breath Percy began scarring Nico for life "Okay than let's start from the beginning you see once every month a female produces eggs."

"Girls lay EGGS?" Nico yelled shocked

"No, no you see they lay eggs that are too small to be seen-"

"So they lay microscopic chickens once a month and that causes them to be grumpy." Nico said nodding his head

"No, okay when a female gets her period it means that she is ready to have a child. Girls get their time of the month in order to have children-"

"So every girl in this room is pregnant! Oh my Gods, this is like an episode of Degrassi or Secret Life of an American teenager or something everybody is getting pregnant! Not that I watch it." Nico added hastily "Gods! Annabeth she is suppose to be the responsible one! Why is there a little Percy in her stomach! Why Percy why did you and Annabeth get married and why was I not invited, even though I have been trying to kill you for the past few months? Athena's going to kill you… you're going to be a father Percy congratulations." Nico said breaking his rant awkwardly

"No one in this room is pregnant… I hope and Annabeth and I are not married, and she is NOT pregnant, she my best friend- it's not like I like her or anything it's just-oh never mind back to the birds and the bees talk. Okay having a period means a girl is not pregnant."

"Wait but if she's ready to be pregnant than why can't she be pregnant?" Nico said confused does this mean that Percy didn't get Annabeth pregnant because he had a perfect gift for them

"Okay so once every month a girl release eggs, those eggs travel through a tube and if they meet a sperm-"

"What's a sperm?"

"Uh…I don't feel comfortable telling you about this, but a sperm is from your…your-how do I put this gently… your little friend." Percy said wincing at every word in that sentence

"My little friend?" Nico said raising an eyebrow

"Please don't make me say this. Um the part that only guys have, the family jewels… please don't make me continue!" Percy yelled blushing like a tomato

"How does a sperm meet an egg than?" Nico said confused

"Uh… Grover! I need your help!" Percy screamed at the top of his lungs running out of the room.

An hour later after many charts, graphic discussions and plastic butts Nico's teenage years were ruined. So thank you Percy for ruining his life with the birds and the bees talk. He really appreciated it. So after a horrifying discussion with his lovely and wonderful cousin while everyone else ate greasy food and drank fattening sodas they were back to reading.

"Grover your turn." Annabeth said tossing the book to him

"**Grover Unexpectedly Loses his Pants," **Grover read

"Uh, of course I get this chapter." Grover groaned after reading the chapter title

"How did you lose your pants?" Chris asked

"Yes is their something you want to tell us?" Connor asked wiggling his eyebrows

**Confession time: I ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal.**

"I know, I spent an hour looking for you before I realized you ditched me after you PROMISED me you wouldn't." Grover said

"What a stupid thing to do." Rachel said

"Exactly why Seaweed Brain did it." Annabeth grinned

**I know, I know. It was rude. **

"At least you knew it was rude." Silena said

**But Grover was freaking me out, looking at me like I was a dead man,**

"That's because I thought you were." Grover said sadly

"But I'm still alive." Percy said

**muttering "Why does this always happen?" and "Why does it always have to he sixth grade?"**

**Whenever he got upset, Grover's bladder acted up,**

Laughter was heard around the room

"Hey it's not my fault my bladder has a mind of it's own."

**so I wasn't surprised when, as soon as we got off the bus, he made me promise to wait for him, then made a beeline for the restroom.**

**Instead of waiting, I got my suitcase, slipped outside, and caught the first taxi uptown.**

"They let a 12 year boy get on the taxi without any parents?" Rachel asked shocked

Percy shrugged "It's New York."

**"East One-hundred-and-fourth and First," I told the driver.**

**A word about my mother, before you meet her.**

"She is the coolest person alive." Thalia said and everyone who has ever met Percy's mom nodded in agreement

**Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world,**

"She's your mom you have to say that." Travis snorted

"But she is though." Tyson pouted

**which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck.**

"It's true, terrible people are always filthy rich while some of the nicest people in the world are broke and living in the streets." Beckendorf said causing Rachel to wince but if anyone noticed they didn't say anything

**Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five, and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her. She wanted to be a novelist, so she spent high school working to save enough money for a college with a good creative-writing program. Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care of him. **

"Why did she quit school just to take care of him if he didn't care for her?" Clarisse asked

"It's just the kind of person she is." Percy whispered

**After he died, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma.**

Everyone in the room felt sympathy for this women.

"I think you're right, the best people do have the rottenest luck." Thalia said sadly

Percy nodded, he missed his mom

**The only good break she ever got was meeting my dad.**

**I don't have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile. My mom doesn't like to talk about him because **_**it **_**makes her sad. She has no pictures. See, they weren't married. She told me he was rich and important, and their relationship was a secret.**

"How much does your mom know about all this Greek stuff?"

"Pretty much everything." Percy sighed

**Then one day, he set sail across the Atlantic on some important journey, and he never came back. Lost at sea, my mom told me. Not dead. Lost at sea. **

"That's like twisting the truth." Annabeth said

"Yeah, it's a better explanation than what my mom gave to me. Your dad's gone, get over it." Travis snorted

"I have the same mom as you and how come I don't remember her saying that?" Connor asked smirking

"Uh… Grover read!" Travis yelled pushing Grover

**She worked odd jobs, took night classes to get her high school diploma, and raised me on her own. She never complained or got mad.**

"I wonder what that would be like, a mom who never got mad." Chris sighed

**Not even once. But I knew I wasn't an easy kid.**

**Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano, who was nice the first thirty seconds we knew him,**

"Wow he sounds wonderful." Clarisse muttered

"I know, Clarisse was nice to me for a _whole_ minute before she punched me in the gut." Connor said

"Yeah but she spent the first minute cursing at you in multiple languages." Annabeth said outraged

**then showed his true colors as a world-class jerk. When I was young, I nick named him Smelly Gabe. **

"Smelly Gabe?" Rachel asked raising an eyebrow

"I was like 7, give me a break and besides it was true." Percy said

**I'm sorry, but it's the truth. The guy reeked like moldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts.**

"Disgusting." Silena said wrinkling her nose

Tyson nodded in agreement "Eeww."

**Between the two of us,**

"Between the two of who?" Nico asked

"It's whom, and probably for the people reading the book." Annabeth said

**we made my mom's life pretty hard. The way Smelly Gabe treated her, the way he and I got along**

"Let me guess you get along swell and he's like your real father and he the best dad in the world?" Nico said sarcastically

"Aww we've corrupted you." Connor said pretending to wipe a tear away

**... well, when I came home is a good example.**

**I walked into our little apartment, hoping my mom would be home from work. Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet.**

"That's disgusting, he living like a pig." Silena said

"He is a pig." Rachel said scrunching up her nose

**Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, "So, you're home."**

**"Where's my mom?"**

**"Working," he said. "You got any cash?"**

"He's asking you for cash?" Clarisse asked outraged

"What kind of person asks a kid for money?" Thalia said

"Gabe." Percy said

**That was it. No **_**Welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life been the last six months?**_

"You were actually dumb enough to believe he would say those things?" Thalia snorted

"No, but it would have been nice to hear it." Percy said

**Gabe had put on weight.**

"More? The guy had already looked like an elephant." Grover yelled

**He looked like a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something.**

"Wow, your mom's gotta a charmer right there." Beckendorf said trying not to look sick

"I know she married a male model." Nico said wincing as if saying it had actually hurt him

**He managed the Electronics Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. I don't know why he hadn't been fired long before. He just kept on collecting paychecks, **

"If he's not doing any work than why does he gets money?" Tyson asked

"I don't know humans are messed up." Grover said

"Everyone in this room besides you and Tyson are human." Rachel said

"Exactly my point." Grover said

**spending the money on cigars that made me nauseous, and on beer, of course. Always beer. Whenever I was home, he expected me to provide his gambling funds. He called that our "guy secret." Meaning, if I told my mom, he would punch my lights out.**

"He hurt you?" Annabeth growled

"Ooo looks like Annabeth is protective of her boyfriend." Clarisse teased

"She's not." Percy argued "And no he never actually hurt me, even he wouldn't do that."

**"I don't have any cash," I told him.**

**He raised a greasy eyebrow.**

"Why do your thoughts have to be so descriptive?" Thalia yelled shaking her head as if to clear her head

**Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was surprising, since his own smell should've covered up everything else.**

'You'd be surprised." Grover muttered

**"You took a taxi from the bus station," he said. "Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right, Eddie?"**

"How did he know that?" Chris said still surprised the walrus could talk

**Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at me with a twinge of sympathy. "Come on, Gabe," he said. "The kid just got here."**

"At least he still has a heart." Annabeth said

**"Am I **_**right**_**?**_**" **_**Gabe repeated.**

**Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels. **

"Heart's gone." Rachel sighed

**The other two guys passed gas in harmony.**

"Oh my gods, that's disgusting." Silena said looking like she was going to throw up

"Men are pigs." Thalia said

**"Fine," I said. I dug a wad of dollars out of my pocket and threw the money on the table. "I hope you lose."**

"Did he?" Rachel asked

"Does it matter?" Annabeth replied

**"Your report card came, brain boy!" he shouted after me. "I wouldn't act so snooty!"**

**I slammed the door to my room, which really wasn't my room. During school months, it was Gabe's "study."**

"What could he possibly study?" Clarisse hissed, she really wanted to strangle this guy

**He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines, but he loved shoving my stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer.**

"Eeww!" Tyson said

"What cologne did he use, I have to remind myself not to buy it." Nico said

**I dropped my suitcase on the bed. Home sweet home.**

**Gabe's smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs. Dodds,**

"We should bring them together and see who wins the furies or Gabe's smell." Thalia said

"5 bucks on Gabe." Nico yelled

**or the sound of that old fruit lady's shears snipping the yarn.**

"Really?" Rachel said raising an eyebrow

"Clearly you have never met Gabe." Percy said

**But as soon as I thought that, my legs felt weak. I remembered Grover's look of panic—how he'd made me promise I wouldn't go home without him. A sudden chill rolled through me. I felt like someone—something—was looking for me right now, maybe pounding its way up the stairs, growing long, horrible talons.**

"Paranoid." Connor sung

"After being attacked by a 50 year old lady who turned into an overgrown bat I think I have the right to be paranoid." Percy said

**Then I heard my mom's voice. "Percy?"**

**She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted.**

**My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room.**

"Mama's boy." Thalia said but at the same time there was a longing in her voice

**Her eyes sparkle and change color in the light. Her smile is as warm as a quilt. She's got a few gray streaks mixed in with her long brown hair, but I never think of her as old. When she looks at me, it's like she's seeing all the good things about me, none of the bad.**

"What good things?" Annabeth teased poking Percy in the ribs

"Aww look their already acting like a married couple, imagine them in a few years." Connor said

"Shut up Connor!" Percy and Annabeth yelled both turning red

**I've never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word to anyone, not even me or Gabe.**

**"Oh, Percy." She hugged me tight. "I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!"**

"Yep but he's still a midget." Clarisse teased

"Hey, I am not a midget! I'm still growing." Percy protested

"Whatever you say." Annabeth said

**Her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate,**

"Mmn chocolate." Nico said his eyes glazing over

"I'm guessing you like chocolate?"

"I love it… but I haven't have any since 1935." Nico said his voice full of longing

"We'll get you some chocolate after this chapter." Percy said softly

Nico nodded eagerly in response.

**licorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the candy shop in Grand Central.**

"Your mom works at a candy shop? Do you think she could give us a discount?" Travis asked eagerly, his question was ignored

**She'd brought me a huge bag of "free samples," the way she always did when I came home. We sat together on the edge of the bed. While I attacked the blueberry sour strings, **

"I love those!" Travis cheered

"Yeah and guess what?" Percy said eagerly

"What?"

"We don't have any!" He roared trying to get Travis to shut up so they could finish the chapter

**she ran her hand through my hair and demanded to know everything I hadn't put in my letters. She didn't mention anything about my getting expelled. She didn't seem to care about that. But was I okay? Was her little boy doing all right?**

"Aww how cute are you, a little mama's boy." Thalia teased

"I know, I just want to pinch his cheeks." Annabeth said joining in

**I told her she was smothering me, and to lay off and all that, but secretly, I was really, really glad to see her.**

"It's so sweet how you love you mother so much." Silena cooed

"Yeah soooo sweet." Connor teased

**From the other room, Gabe yelled, "Hey, Sally—how about some bean dip, huh?"**

"I want to smack him for ruing the nice mother and son moment." Rachel said

**I gritted my teeth.**

**My mom is the nicest lady in the world. She should've been married to a millionaire, not to some jerk like Gabe.**

"Well, I think married to a god would be better than a millionaire." Rachel said

"But she can't marry Poseidon, he already has a wife." Annabeth pointed out

**For her sake, I tried to sound upbeat about my last days at Yancy Academy. I told her I wasn't too down about the expulsion.**

"This of course, was a total lie." Thalia said

**I'd lasted almost the whole year this time. I'd made some new friends. I'd done pretty well in Latin. And honestly, the fights hadn't been as bad as the headmaster said. **

"What do you mean by haven't been as bad?" Annabeth asked

"Oh you know, just a few bloody noses, blacks eyes, cuts, and scratches, nothing to bad." Percy shrugged

**I liked Yancy Academy. I really did. I put such a good spin on the year, I almost convinced myself.** **I started choking up, thinking about Grover and Mr. Brunner. Even Nancy Bobofit suddenly didn't seem so bad.**

"Wow, you must be really desperate." Connor said

**Until that trip to the museum ...**

**"What?" my mom asked. Her eyes tugged at my conscience, trying to pull out the secrets. "Did something scare you?"**

"Mommy knows everything." Nico sung

**"No, Mom."**

**I felt bad lying. I wanted to tell her about Mrs. Dodds and the three old ladies with the yarn, but I thought it would sound stupid.**

"You should have told her, than maybe we wouldn't have had to gone all the way to hell." Grover muttered

"You went to hell?" Nico asked wide eyed

"The book will tell you." Percy replied

**She pursed her lips. She knew I was holding back, but she didn't push me.**

**"I have a surprise for you," she said. "We're going to the beach."**

**My eyes widened. "Montauk?"**

"Why is the beach so important?" Rachel asked

"It's where my mom and dad met." Percy replied smiling gently

"Aww, how romantic." Silena squealed

**"Three nights—same cabin."**

"Which cabin?" Connor asked raising his eyebrows

"It doesn't matter." Annabeth sighed before motioning for Grover to continue

**"When?"**

**She smiled. "As soon as I get changed."**

**I couldn't believe it. My mom and I hadn't been to Montauk the last two summers, because Gabe said there wasn't enough money.**

"Liar, he probably just used all the money for his own smelly personal needs." Nico said like a child who was tattle tailing

**Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, "Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?"**

"I wanna shove that bean dip up his-" Thalia started

"Thalia, there are children in this room, children who hang out in dark corners and talk to ghost and are innocent, so you don't need to scar them with you language." Annabeth said covering the "innocent" child's ears

**I wanted to punch him, **

"Please, it'll be doing us all a favor." Clarisse muttered

**but I met my mom's eyes and I understood she was offering me a deal: be nice to Gabe for a little while. Just until she was ready to leave for Montauk. Then we would get out of here.**

**"I was on my way, honey," she told Gabe. "We were just talking about the trip."**

**Gabe's eyes got small. "The trip? You mean you were serious about that?"**

"If he tries to stop you, than I don't care if we're trapped in a room, I will go outside, find him, beat the crap out of him then hang him from a tree, by his tiny pen-"

"Stop it! Seriously Thalia there are innocent minds in this room me included." Annabeth said

**"I knew it," I muttered. "He won't let us go."**

"He better let you go or I'll-."

"We get it!" Annabeth yelled getting annoyed by her friend

**"Of course he will," my mom said evenly. "Your step father is just worried about money. **

"Yes of course that's it he worried about the money that your mom make while he sits and home drinking beer and playing poker with his stupid poker buddies."

"Why, Annabeth you should not use such language to scar the innocent minds in this room." Thalia said mocking Annabeth

**That's all. Besides," she added, "Gabriel won't have to settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works."**

"Mmn, that sounds good do you think your mom could make it for me." Connor moaned

**Gabe softened a bit. "So this money for your trip ... it comes out of your clothes budget, right?"**

"Ah, the monster! How could he take money out of the clothes budget! He should know that style is the most important thing, not that he has any!" Silena ranted

"Continue reading." Beckendorf hissed when Silena took a break from her ranting "She can go on forever about this."

**"Yes, honey," my mother said.**

**"And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back."**

**"We'll be very careful."**

**Gabe scratched his double chin. "Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip ... And maybe if the kid apologizes for interrupting my poker game."**

"Maybe if you kick him in the soft spot instead." Clarisse huffed

Grover sniggered when he read the next line.

**Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, I thought. And make you sing soprano for a week.**

"Huh, guess Clarisse think like a certain son of Poseidon." Connor and Travis sniggered

Clarisse responded by lunging at Connor and tried to rip his arms off.

"Ah! Assault, Assault!" Connor screamed as he was shoved into his chair.

**But my mom's eyes warned me not to make him mad.**

"You should have kicked him anyway." Nico snorted ignoring the screams coming from the corner of room, where Connor and Clarisse were

**Why did she put up with this guy? I wanted to scream. Why did she care what he thought?**

"She was only trying to protect you." Grover muttered to Percy

"I know." Percy said, that's what made it worst

**"I'm sorry," I muttered. "I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now."**

**Gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in my statement.**

"He doesn't even have a tiny brain." Annabeth muttered to no one in particular

**"Yeah, whatever," he decided.**

**He went back to his game.**

"I hope he lost." Percy said

**"Thank you, Percy," my mom said. "Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about... whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay?"**

**For a moment, I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes—the same fear I'd seen in Grover during the bus ride—as if my mom too felt an odd chill in the air.**

"She knew." Percy muttered

**But then her smile returned, and I figured I must have been mistaken. She ruffled my hair and went to make Gabe his seven-layer dip.**

"Mmn, seven-layer dip." Connor moaned staring blankly into space

**An hour later we were ready to leave.**

**Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch me lug my mom's bags to the car. He kept griping and groaning about losing her cooking**

"Well at least he appreciates her in some way." Annabeth muttered

—**and more important, his '78 Camaro—for the whole weekend.**

"Of, course." Thalia said before Annabeth could even open her mouth

**"Not a scratch on this car, brain boy,"**

"Brain boy?" Connor said looking around horrified

"I know, the only time Percy could be called brain boy is when… he should never be called brain boy." Thalia said

"Hey!" Percy yelled offended

**he warned me as I loaded the last bag. "Not one little scratch."**

"Please tell me you destroy the car with a sledgehammer." Clarisse begged

"Even better." Percy said sharing a smirk with Grover, at least one good thing came out of this

"Why is he saying this to you? It's not like your gonna be driving." Thalia said shaking her head

"I don't know, some people are just messed up." Percy said

**Like I'd be the one driving. I was twelve. But that didn't matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he'd find a way to blame me.**

"The guy's a jerk." Silena started

"Yeah, yeah we know the guy's terrible can we just continue." Nico muttered

**Watching him lumber back toward the apartment building, I got so mad I did something I can't explain.**

"Did you punch him or use your freaky fishy water power to soak him?" Thalia asked

"My powers are not freaky, they are freakin awesome!" Percy yelled before high fiving the boys in the room while the girls rolled their eyes

**As Gabe reached the doorway, I made the hand gesture I'd seen Grover make on the bus, a sort of warding-off-evil gesture, a clawed hand over my heart, then a shoving movement toward Gabe. **

"Well that's not that strange, you saw your friend do it in a time of distress so naturally to decided to do it when you felt that something bad was going to happen." Rachel said

"Okay ginger, we don't need a psychology lesson on this." Clarisse said

**The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the stair case as if he'd been shot from a cannon.**

Everyone in the room roared with laughter

"I wish you had a video of that." Travis managed between laughs

**Maybe it was just the wind, or some freak accident with the hinges, but I didn't stay long enough to find out.** **I got in the Camaro and told my mom to step on it.** **Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets,**

Annabeth shivered "Spiders." She muttered as if she was looking her worse fear in the eye

**and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in.**

"This of course is no problem for a son of Poseidon." Connor said smiling proudly as if he just won a prize or something

**I loved the place.**

**We'd been going there since I was a baby. My mom had been going even longer. She never exactly said, but I knew why the beach was special to her. It was the place where she'd met my dad.**

"Aww, that's so sweet." Silena cooed

**As we got closer to Montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing from her face. Her eyes turned the color of the sea.**

"I can see why Poseidon fell in love with her." Beckendorf said

"Yes, Sally very kind and pretty." Tyson said

**We got there at sunset, opened all the cabin's windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine. We walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my mom had brought from work.**

"Why is everything blue?" Thalia asked then hastily added "Not that it's not a great color."

**I guess I should explain the blue food.**

"Yes you should." Thalia said

**See, Gabe had once told my mom there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. But ever since, my mom went out of her way to eat blue. She baked blue birthday cakes. She mixed blueberry smoothies.**

"Do blueberry smoothies taste good because aren't blueberries really sour?" Rachel asked

**She bought blue-corn tortilla chips and brought home blue candy from the shop. This—along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs. Ugliano—**

"I can see why, who wants to be called Ugliano." Annabeth said

**was proof that she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe. She did have a rebellious streak, like me.**

"Shouldn't you have gotten the rebellious streak from her?" Chris asked

"Does it matter?" Percy sighed again

**When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. **

"Food." Connor moaned

"How can you be hungry we just ate." Thalia said starring at him

"I'm a growing boy." Connor huffed

**Mom told me stories about when she was a kid, back before her parents died in the plane crash. She told me about the books she wanted to write someday, when she had enough money to quit the candy shop.**

"Did she ever get to write the books?" Annabeth questioned

"I think she's working on it." Percy answered

**Eventually, I got up the nerve to ask about what was always on my mind whenever we came to Montauk—my father. Mom's eyes went all misty. I figured she would tell me the same things she always did, but I never got tired of hearing them.**

**"He was kind, Percy," she said.**

"Of course he was, he was the god of earthquakes who killed thousands of people when he got angry but he's very kind." Rachel said sarcastically

"That's my father you're talking about." Percy said mad

"Sorry, didn't mean it that way." Rachel said realizing what she said

**"Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes."**

"You're actually a mirror image of your father." Annabeth said

"Yeah, I know." Percy muttered not knowing if that was a good thing or not

**Mom fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag. "I wish he could see you, Percy. He would be so proud."**

"What's there to be proud of?" Clarisse sneered

"I don't know maybe because he returned the lightning bolt to Zeus, or because he went to the sea of monsters, maybe it's because he defeated Atlas, or maybe because he went into the labyrinth, choose one." Annabeth smirked

**I wondered how she could say that. What was so great about me? A dyslexic, hyperactive boy with a D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years.**

"We were kicked out of school 7 times in 6 years." Connor and Travis grinned

"Yes, that's something to be proud of." Annabeth said rolling her eyes

**"How old was I?" I asked. "I mean ... when he left?"**

**She watched the flames. "He was only with me for one summer, Percy. Right here at this beach. This cabin."**

**"But... he knew me as a baby."**

"He probably visited but your mom just didn't know about it." Annabeth said reassuring Percy when she saw the look on his face

**"No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born."**

**I tried to square that with the fact that I seemed to remember ... something about my father. A warm glow. A smile.**

"See, you remember a part about your father." Annabeth said

"It seems kind of cruel, don't you think, that Gods have so many children but most of them have never even seen what they look like." Rachel said frowning

"It's the rule." Thalia said

"A stupid rule." Connor said

**I had always assumed he knew me as a baby. My mom had never said it outright, but still, I'd felt it must be true. Now, to be told that he'd never even seen me...** **I felt angry at my father. Maybe it was stupid, but I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not having the guts to marry my mom. **

"He couldn't marry your mom remember, he's already married." Grover said

"I didn't know that back then." Percy said

**He'd left us, and now we were stuck with Smelly Gabe.**

"Yeah, I'd be angry to if I were stuck with what's his face." Silena said waving her hand like someone would wave off a bad smell

**"Are you going to send me away again?" I asked her. "To another boarding school?"**

**She pulled a marshmallow from the fire.**

"You can get sick from burnt food." Annabeth said

"What can't you get sick from?" Clarisse asked

**"I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. "I think ... I think we'll have to do something."**

**"Because you don't want me around?"**

"You hurt Sally's feelings." Tyson said

"I'm sorry for that." Percy said awkwardly

**I regretted the words as soon as they were out.**

**My mom's eyes welled with tears.**

Chris shook his head at Percy, "You made a girl cry."

"I didn't mean to." Percy muttered looking down at his shoes

**She took my hand, squeezed it tight. "Oh, Percy, no. I—I **_**have **_**to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away." **

**Her words reminded me of what Mr. Brunner had said—that it was best for me to leave Yancy.**

**"Because I'm not normal," I said**

"No you're… special." Thalia snickered

"Thanks… wait a minute was that an insult?" Percy said

"None of us are normal." Nico sighed

"Well except for Ginger here." Clarisse smirked

"Yeah, I'm normal, that's so bad." Rachel said rolling her eyes

**"You say that as if it's a bad thing, Percy. **

"It's not a bad thing, I'm not normal and I'm wonderful, brilliant, gorgeous-"

"Arrogant, stupid, vain, must I continue?" Thalia interrupted Nico

**But you don't realize how important you are. I thought Yancy Academy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe."**

**"Safe from what?"**

"Terrifying monster and Gods who both want to boil you in boiling hot water and eat you limbs but nothing to scary." Travis said

"No one cares." Clarisse sighed putting her head into her hands

Travis sniffed, "No one cares about us anymore Connor we should just stop talking."

"Please!" everyone in the room yelled

**She met my eyes, and a flood of memories came back to me—all the weird, scary things that had ever happened to me, some of which I'd tried to forget.**

"What do you mean by weird and scary, like the kind where you wake up in the morning and see Smelly Gabe doing yoga in nothing but his underwear while eating ice cream, or weird and scary as in a monster is stalking you?" Beckendorf asked

"The second one." Percy answered

**During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me on the playground. When the teachers threatened to call the police, he went away growling, but no one believed me when I told them that under his broad-brimmed hat, the man only had one eye, right in the middle of his head.**

"Cyclops." Chris muttered to low for anyone to hear even thought everyone was thinking it

"No one would believe you, you're a 8 year old kid." Rachel shrugged

**Before that—a really early memory. I was in preschool, and a teacher accidentally put me down for a nap in a cot that a snake had slithered into. My mom screamed when she came to pick me up and found me playing with a limp, scaly rope I'd somehow managed to strangle to death with my meaty toddler hands.**

"See that's super toddler right there." Percy commented smirking

"I don't think that's a monster attack, it's probably just a normal snake that got lost and the "super baby" killed it. So basically you murdered an innocent animal." Grover said which wiped the smirk right off of Percy's face

**In every single school, something creepy had happened, something unsafe, and I was forced to move.** **I knew I should tell my mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds at the art museum, about my weird hallucination that I had sliced my math teacher into dust with a sword. **

"Still letting the mist affect you, I see." Thalia stated

"If everyone around you believed something that you thought was a lie you would eventually believe it." Percy said

**But I couldn't make myself tell her. I had a strange feeling the news would end our trip to Montauk, and I didn't want that.**

"Well maybe if you told her we wouldn't have had to gone to HELL!" Grover hissed at Percy

"It already happened and we're all still alive, aren't we?" Percy said

"Barely." Grover muttered

**"I've tried to keep you as close to me as I could," my mom said. "They told me that was a mistake. But there's only one other option, Percy—the place your father wanted to send you. And I just... I just can't stand to do it."**

"It's not a mistake to want to keep your child close to you." Silena said

**"My father wanted me to go to a special school?"**

**"Not a school," she said softly. "A summer camp."**

"Yes finally the most awesomest place in the world is mentioned!" Connor yelled and agreements were heard all around the room

"Awesomest isn't a word." Annabeth said correcting Connor

**My head was spinning. Why would my dad—who hadn't even stayed around long enough to see me born— talk to my mom about a summer camp? And if it was so important, why hadn't she ever mentioned it before?**

"Because she wanted you to stay with her isn't it obvious she just said it." Thalia said rolling her eyes

"I know." Percy hissed

**"I'm sorry, Percy," she said, seeing the look in my eyes. "But I can't talk about it. I—I couldn't send you to that place. It might mean saying good-bye to you for good."**

**"For good? But if it's only a summer camp ..."**

"She's scared that once you get here and realize how great it is you won't come back to her." Chris said

**She turned toward the fire, and I knew from her expression that if I asked her any more questions she would start to cry.**

"You never make a girl cry, that's the number one rule in the Book of Manly Manness, which you clearly haven't read." Connor said before looking at Percy like something on his shoe

"There isn't a Book of Manly Manness, is there?" Percy said before turning to look at Annabeth

"How should I know?" She scowled at Percy

**That night I had a vivid dream.**

**It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf.**

"Poseidon and Zeus trying to kill each other, absolutely nothings changed." Thalia laughed shaking her head

"How can you be so calm, our dads are trying to kill each other?" Percy said

"Yeah, they've been doing it ever since Poseidon got out of their father's stomach." Thalia responded

**The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muzzle with its huge talons. The horse reared up and kicked at the eagles wings. As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.**

"Kronos?" Chris asked

"Wait, what do you mean Kronos?" Nico questioned

"The books will say." Percy sighed, this was the last thing he needed to here about Kronos rising again

**I ran toward them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion.**

"Kronos can control time." Annabeth said

**I knew I would be too late. I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes, and I screamed, **_**No!**_

**I woke with a start.**

"Well that was a creepy dream and trust me I've had some creepy dreams." Rachel muttered

**Outside, it really was storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery.**

"So they really were fighting." Beckendorf said to no one in particular

"I think we all established that." Clarisse said

**With the next thunderclap, my mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, "Hurricane."**

"How could there be a hurricane in Long Island?" Rachel asked

"Gods remember?" Annabeth said

"Oh right." Rachel muttered blushing

**I knew that was crazy. Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean seemed to have forgotten. Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end.** **Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice—someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door.**

"A monster?" Tyson asked

"No worst." Percy joked making Grover hit him over the head with the book

**My mother sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock.**

**Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't... he wasn't exactly Grover.**

"Why did he have wings, fangs and looked like Edward Cullen?" Travis asked excitedly

"No." Percy replied causing Travis to pout

**"Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you thinking?"**

**My mother looked at me in terror—not scared of Grover, **

Thalia gasped "Who isn't scared of an acne covered boy with donkey legs."

"I wish I could kill you.' Grover hissed at her

**but of why he'd come.**

**"Percy," she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?"**

"Everything." Grover muttered

**I was frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn't understand what I was seeing.**

_**"O Zeu kai alloi theoi!"**_

"Grover how could you curse in front of Percy's mom?" Thalia asked pretending to be astonished

**he yelled. "It's right behind me! Didn't you **_**tell **_**her?"**

**I was too shocked to register that he'd just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I'd understood him perfectly. I was too shocked to wonder how Grover had gotten here by himself in the middle of the night. Because Grover didn't have his pants on—**

"Eeww!" Rachel shrieked

"I'm a satyr remember!" Grover said

"Oh." Rachel said blushing

"I really hope you had underwear on, you don't need to scar Percy's mom or us for the rest of our lives." Connor muttered

**and where his legs should be ... where his legs should be ...**

"What did he have freakishly skinny legs, were they badly burned, were they blue? I need to know!" Travis yelled

"Travis." Grover interrupted pointing at his furry goat legs

"Oh." Travis muttered

**My mom looked at me sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before: **_**"Percy. **_**Tell me **_**now**_**!"**

"I really don't think now's the time." Thalia joked trying to ease the tension even though they all knew Percy would survive

**I stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds, and my mom stared at me, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lightning.**

"Are you sure it wasn't just the lighting?" Nico asked

**She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said, "Get to the car. Both of you. **_**Go**_**!**_**"**_

**Grover ran for the Camaro—but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters,**

"Shaggy hindquarters?" Chris said amused

**and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked.**

**Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves.**

Nico scoffed "Big deal, I've seen people without feet they have hand for feet instead and feet for hands."

"Where do you go?" Annabeth asked

"Chapters done." Grover said tossing the book to Rachel

Clarisse grabbed the book from Rachel "Can you read?" she asked as if talking to a 3 year old

"Yeah I can." Rachel said huffing and grabbing the book from her before starting

"Wait, what about my chocolate?" Nico pouted as soon as he said it a Kit-Kat bar fell out of the ceiling and landed in his lap

"Thank you." He shouted at the ceiling

**Thank you very, very much to those who have reviewed, your reviews are appreciated. If you like it review if you don't review anyway. Hope you liked this chapter.**

**Note: I know that a few of you want me to add the gods to the room, and there are two reasons why I can't: The title, ****Half-bloods ****not gods. The second reason is because I already have 13 people in the room and I'm trying really hard to get them all to have a chance to talk. But I am willing to add 2 more characters into the story. There is a poll on my profile so please vote and I will take the 2 top people and put them into the stories. Your choices are Luke, Chiron, and all the Greek gods.**

**-WishingWell414 **


	4. My Mother teaches me Bullfighting

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson or any of the characters**

**Please, please, please review.**

**Chapter 4**

"**My Mother teaches me Bullfighting"**

"**My Mother teaches me Bullfighting," **Rachel read

Percy groaned at the title

And Rachel being completely clueless about this said "Bullfighting did you guys go to a rodeo or something?"

"You know I always thought bullfighting would be fun, jumping around wearing a red dress while a bull runs around in circles." Connor said

"That's not what bullfighting is." Chris said raising an eyebrow

"And I wish the chapter was about a rodeo, it would have saved me a lot of grief and besides I like rodeo clowns." Percy said

**We tore through the night along dark country roads. Wind slammed against the Camaro.**

"I almost forgot about the Camaro does this mean that it's going to be destroyed?" Thalia grinned wickedly

"This is going to be good." Nico grinned, a wick gleam in his eyes

**Rain lashed the wind shield. I didn't know how my mom could see anything, but she kept her foot on the gas.**

**Every time there was a flash of lightning, I looked at Grover sitting next to me in the backseat and I wondered if I'd gone insane,**

"Probably." Thalia said

"Ha, ha very funny." Percy muttered

**or if he was wearing some kind of shag-carpet pants.**

"Shag carpet pants?" Grover asked

"You can actually buy them online, there quite comfortable." Percy stated

"What can't you buy online?" Annabeth said rolling her eyes

"Human fingers?" Connor asked finally thinking of something

"No, I think they have a website for that." Beckendorf said

**But, no, the smell was one I remembered from kindergarten field trips to the petting zoo— lanolin,**

"There's a petting zoo called Lanolin?" Travis asked wide eyed

"No, lanolin is wool wax or grease that is used by humans and comes from domesticated sheep." Annabeth said

"How is it that you know everything?" Clarisse asked

**like from wool. The smell of a wet barnyard animal.**

"Well thanks, just so you know you don't smell so great either." Grover said to Percy

"What are you talking about, I smell wonderful." Percy said

Annabeth laughed "Of course you do." She said patting his head

**All I could think to say was, "So, you and my mom... know each other?"**

"Of course we know each other we're life long friends, you just never saw me around because I have an invisibility cloak that's just like Harry Potter who is also my best friend." Grover said sarcastically

**Graver's eyes flitted to the rearview mirror, though there were no cars behind us. **

"It's New York there's always cars on the road." Beckendorf said

**"Not exactly," he said. "I mean, we've never met in person. But she knew I was watching you."**

**"Watching me?"**

"That sounds like you were stalking him or something." Chris said

"Well he kind of was." Clarisse smirked

**"Keeping tabs on you. Making sure you were okay. But I wasn't faking being your friend," he added hastily. "I **_**am **_**your friend."**

"I am your friend you know that right?" Grover asked

"After 3 years of risking our lives for each other on several occasions, I don't think we're friends." Percy said sarcastically

**"Urn ... what **_**are **_**you, exactly?"**

"A satyr." Tyson said looking at Percy like he was stupid

"I know but… back then… I… oh never mind." Percy said looking flustered

**"That doesn't matter right now."**

**"It doesn't matter? From the waist down, my best friend is a donkey—"**

"Donkey?" Thalia said amused

Nico snickered "Grover the donkey."

"Shut up." The donkey said

**Grover let out a sharp, throaty **_**"Blaa-ha-ha!"**_

"What is that?" Silena asked "Are you chocking?"

**I'd heard him make that sound before, but I'd always assumed it was a nervous laugh. Now I realized it was more of an irritated bleat.**

"Shouldn't you have noticed that the sound sounded like a goat?" Annabeth asked

"I didn't know any of this stuff, okay." Percy said

**"Goat!" he cried.**

**"What?"**

**"I'm a **_**goat **_**from the waist down."**

"Yes, that's so much better Grover the goat instead of the donkey." Connor said

"Blaa-ha-ha! You're annoying." Grover cried

**"You just said it didn't matter."**

"Yeah you did, if you were in a debate, you would have lost by now." Annabeth said

_**"Blaa-ha-ha!**_ **There are satyrs who would trample you underhoof for such an insult!"**

"I'd like to see one satyr who could trample me." Nico said

"Well… none of them could trample you but Hedge could whack you with a baseball bat." Grover said shrugging

"Are you talking about that guy that's 5 foot and looks like he ate a lemon?" Nico asked

"Yep that's him, he makes quite an impression."

**"Whoa. Wait. Satyrs. You mean like ... Mr. Brunner's myths?"**

"Technically they're the Greek myths." Annabeth

"Yeah but Mr. Brunner told them to me so…" Percy started but was quickly interrupted as Rachel continued to read

**"Were those old ladies at the fruit stand a **_**myth, **_**Percy? Was Mrs. Dodds a myth?"**

**"So you **_**admit **_**there was a Mrs. Dodds!"**

"Duh, where have you been?" Connor said waving his hand dismiss fully at Percy

**"Of course."**

**"Then why—"**

**"The less you knew, the fewer monsters you'd attract," Grover said, like that should be perfectly obvious.**

"It is perfectly obvious." Clarisse rolled her eyes

**"We put Mist over the humans' eyes. We hoped you'd think the Kindly One was a hallucination. But it was no good. You started to realize who you are."**

"What? An arrogant boy who doesn't think before he talks." Annabeth teased

"I am not arrogant! And I occasionally think before I talk… sometimes… usually…" Percy said trailing off

**"Who I—wait a minute, what do you mean?"**

**The weird bellowing noise rose up again somewhere behind us, closer than before. Whatever was chasing us was still on our trail.**

**"Percy," my mom said, "there's too much to explain and not enough time. We have to get you to safety."**

**"Safety from what? Who's after me?"**

"Not a who, a what." Beckendorf said

"A minotaur to be exact." Silena said

**"Oh, nobody much," Grover said, obviously still miffed about the donkey comment. "Just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest minions."**

"And a couple of gods, monsters, and a titan but nothing much." Nico said

**"Grover!"**

**"Sorry, Mrs. Jackson. Could you drive faster, please?"**

**I tried to wrap my mind around what was happening, but I couldn't do it. I knew this wasn't a dream. I had no imagination.**

"Well that's a lovely thing to say about yourself." Thalia said

"It's true though, you should have heard his writing homework, once upon a time there was a boy named Cookie who loved cookies one day he ate a cookie and it was poisoned, the end." Annabeth said snorting

"Hey! I got a D- on that." Percy said as of that was a good thing

**I could never dream up something this weird.**

"You're calling this weird, you're the guy who only eats blue food." Rachel said

"And you're the freaky girl who can see monsters." Percy shot back

**My mom made a hard left. We swerved onto a narrower road, racing past darkened farmhouses and wooded hills and PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES signs on white picket fences.**

"Yay! Camp!" Tyson yelled clapping his hands together in delight

"Finally, we're going to be in the story." Clarisse said

**"Where are we going?" I asked.**

**"The summer camp I told you about." My mother's voice was tight; she was trying for my sake not to be scared. "The place your father wanted to send you."**

**"The place you didn't want me to go."**

"Why not camp half-blood is awesome with a capital a!" Connor said and everyone nodded in agreement

**"Please, dear," my mother begged. "This is hard enough. Try to understand. You're in danger."**

**"Because some old ladies cut yarn."**

"Eeww, the old ladies cut the yarn." Tyson said obviously not getting it

"No Tyson… the fates… you know what never mind." Percy said

**"Those weren't old ladies," **

"I'm not even sure they're ladies." Rachel said pausing

"I'm pretty sure they are, if you check I'm pretty sure they will have… parts." Chris said finishing awkwardly

"Thank you." Thalia said looking like she was going to be sick "For putting that thought in my head."

**Grover said. "Those were the Fates. Do you know what it means—the fact they appeared in front of you? They only do that when you're about to ... when someone's about to die."**

**"Whoa. You said 'you.'"**

"No he said you're." Travis said as if this made everything better

**"No I didn't. I said 'someone.'"**

**"You meant 'you.' As in **_**me.**_**"**

**"I meant **_**you, **_**like 'someone.' Not you, **_**you.**_**"**

"As amusing as this is, can you just get on with the story." Thalia said

**"Boys!" my mom said.**

**She pulled the wheel hard to the right, and I got a glimpse of a figure she'd swerved to avoid—a dark fluttering shape now lost behind us in the storm.**

**"What was that?" I asked.**

At this point everyone in the room was holding there breath even though they knew what would happen.

**"We're almost there," my mother said, ignoring my question.**

**"Another mile. Please. Please. Please."**

"Talking to yourself is the first sign of madness." Travis said trying to ease the tension in the room

**I didn't know where **_**there **_**was, but I found myself leaning forward in the car, anticipating, wanting us to arrive.**

"Your fishy senses were telling you something was wrong." Nico said

"Yeah that, and my best friend had goat legs and he just told me I would die." Percy replied

**Outside, nothing but rain and darkness—the kind of empty countryside you get way out on the tip of Long Island. I thought about Mrs. Dodds and the moment when she'd changed into the thing with pointed teeth and leathery wings. My limbs went numb from delayed shock.**

"How can your limbs go numb with shock?" Chris questioned

"It means you're so shocked you can't feel your body parts." Annabeth replied

**She really **_**hadn't **_**been human. She'd meant to kill me.**

"No, she wanted to have a tea party with you." Thalia said sarcastically

"That would have been nice, I love the crumpets they serve." Percy said

**Then I thought about Mr. Brunner ... and the sword he had thrown me.**

"Riptide." Percy said smiling proudly

**Before I could ask Grover about that, the hair rose on the back of my neck. There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling **_**boom!, **_**and our car exploded.**

"Yes!" Thalia and Nico yelled

"We were in the car." Percy said

"Oh." Thalia said no longer celebrating

**I remember feeling weightless, like I was being crushed, fried, and hosed down all at the same time.**

**I peeled my forehead off the back of the driver's seat and said, "Ow."**

"Why do people say Ow when they're hurt, they should say flabula instead." Connor said as if it were actually a good idea

"Flabula?" Chris asked with a raised eyebrow

**"Percy!" my mom shouted.**

**"I'm okay..."**

**I tried to shake off the daze. I wasn't dead. The car hadn't really exploded.**

"Aww." Nico said

"Once again _I_ was in the car." Percy said

"I don't mind." Nico said shrugging

"Sally and Grover were in the car too." Annabeth said

"That I mind." Nico said

**We'd swerved into a ditch. Our driver's-side doors were wedged in the mud. The roof had cracked open like an eggshell and rain was pouring in.**

**Lightning. That was the only explanation. We'd been blasted right off the road. **

"Lightning? As in Zeus?" Nico asked

"Yeah, the book will say." Percy said

**Next to me in the backseat was a big motionless lump. "Grover!"**

Grover groaned loudly, why did he have to be so useless?

"Stop thinking that." Annabeth scowled reading his mind

**He was slumped over, blood trickling from the side of his mouth. I shook his furry hip, thinking, No! Even if you are half barnyard animal, you're my best friend and I don't want you to die!**

"Thanks, that means a lot." Grover said wirily

"Oh course Seaweed Brain would think that." Annabeth said the corner of her lips twitching

**Then he groaned "Food," and I knew there was hope.**

"Boys." Thalia said rolling her eyes

**"Percy," my mother said, "we have to ..." Her voice faltered.**

**I looked back. In a flash of lightning, through the mud-spattered rear windshield, I saw a figure lumbering toward us on the shoulder of the road. The sight of it made my skin crawl. It was a dark silhouette of a huge guy, like a football player. He seemed to be holding a blanket over his head. His top half was bulky and fuzzy. His upraised hands made it look like he had horns.**

"He does have horns." Silena said frowning

Percy scowled "I hate that thing."

**I swallowed hard. "Who is—"**

**"Percy," my mother said, deadly serious. "Get out of the car."**

**My mother threw herself against the driver's-side door. It was jammed shut in the mud. I tried mine. Stuck too. I looked up desperately at the hole in the roof. It might've been an exit, but the edges were sizzling and smoking.**

"So, just climb out and hope that you don't get burned." Clarisse said

"And what happens if I do get hurt?" Percy asked

"Tough luck."

**"Climb out the passenger's side!" my mother told me. "Percy—you have to run. Do you see that big tree?"**

"Look I'm in the story." Thalia said

"Yeah you're a tree but you're in the story." Clarisse said

_**"What?"**_

**Another flash of lightning, and through the smoking hole in the roof I saw the tree she meant: a huge, White House Christmas tree-sized pine at the crest of the nearest hill.**

"Beautiful isn't it." Thalia said smiling proudly

"Yeah as beautiful as a tree can be." Chris said

**"That's the property line," my mom said. "Get over that hill and you'll see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don't look back. Yell for help. Don't stop until you reach the door."**

**"Mom, you're coming too."**

"She can't." Annabeth muttered sadly

"I know." Percy replied back

**Her face was pale, her eyes as sad as when she looked at the ocean.**

**"No!" I shouted. "You **_**are **_**coming with me. Help me carry Grover."**

**"Food!" Grover moaned, a little louder.**

"How is it that you're so skinny?" Thalia asked shocked

"I don't know, I guess the tin cans are low in calories." Grover said

**The man with the blanket on his head kept coming toward us, making his grunting, snorting noises. **

"Why would someone have a blanket over their head?" Annabeth said questioning Percy's logic that didn't exist

**As he got closer, I realized he **_**couldn't **_**be holding a blanket over his head, because his hands—huge meaty hands—were swinging at his sides. There was no blanket. Meaning the bulky, fuzzy mass that was too big to be his head ... was his head. And the points that looked like horns …**

"Finally, you've caught on and I was starting to think you were hopeless." Thalia said

"He is hopeless." Annabeth snorted

**"He doesn't want **_**us**_**," my mother told me. "He wants **_**you. **_**Besides, I can't cross the property line."**

**"But..."**

**"We don't have time, Percy. Go. Please."**

**I got mad, then—mad at my mother, at Grover the goat,**

"What? What did I do?" Grover asked

"Nothing, I was just mad." Percy replied sighing

Travis snorted "Grover the goat."

**at the thing with horns that was lumbering toward us slowly and deliberately like, like a bull.**

"Technically it's only half bull." Beckendorf pointed out

**I climbed across Grover and pushed the door open into the rain. "We're going together. Come on, Mom."**

**"I told you—"**

**"Mom! I am not leaving you. Help me with Grover."**

"You should have just left me there." Grover said bitterly

"Don't say that." Annabeth scowled

"Yeah everything turned out just fine." Percy said

**I didn't wait for her answer. I scrambled outside, dragging Grover from the car. He was surprisingly light,**

"What do you mean by surprisingly light?" Grover said

"Nothing." Percy said

"I am not fat." Grover yelled hyperventilating

"No one said you were." Annabeth said

"I'm not fat."

**but I couldn't have carried him very far if my mom hadn't come to my aid.**

**Together, we draped Grover's arms over our shoulders and started stumbling uphill through wet waist-high grass.**

"We should really trim the grass sometime." Silena said

**Glancing back, I got my first clear look at the monster. He was seven feet tall, easy, his arms and legs like something from the cover of **_**Muscle Man **_**magazine**

"And why would you know what the cover of Muscle Man magazine looks like?" Connor asked raising his eyebrows suggestively

"Yeah Percy is there something you're not telling us?" Chris asked

"No I just saw them on the street and-"

"You just happened to gaze at them longer than you were suppose to?" Travis said

"I hope you fall into a hole." Percy hissed

—**bulging biceps and triceps and a bunch of other 'ceps, all stuffed like baseballs under vein-webbed skin. He wore no clothes**

"Why wasn't he wearing any clothes?" Thalia shrieked

**except under wear—**

"Thank god." Thalia muttered

"Eeww why does he only have underwear on?" Tyson asked

"I don't know maybe he met a lady Minotaur when he was called." Grover said

**I mean, bright white Fruit of the Looms—which would've looked funny, except that the top half of his body was so scary. Coarse brown hair started at about his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders.**

"Big deal, he just really hairy." Clarisse said rolling her eyes

**His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leading up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as my arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes,**

"Why is it that every monster we meet they have black eyes?" Percy asked

"Because black symbolizes evil." Rachel answered

**and horns—enormous black-and-white horns with points you just couldn't get from an electric sharpener.**

**I recognized the monster, all right. He had been in one of the first stories Mr. Brunner told us. But he couldn't be real.**

"He's right in front of you, I think that's proof enough." Annabeth said

**I blinked the rain out of my eyes. "That's—"**

**"Pasiphae's son," my mother said.**

**"I wish I'd known how badly they want to kill you."**

"That was reassuring." Nico snorted

**"But he's the Min—"**

"Don't say the name, they have power." Annabeth warned causing Percy to snicker when he remembered what his mom had said.

**"Don't say his name," she warned. "Names have power."**

"Annabeth's like Percy's mom." Clarisse said

**The pine tree was still way too far—a hundred yards uphill at least.**

**I glanced behind me again.**

"No! You should have just made a run for it!" Chris said

**The bull-man hunched over our car, looking in the windows—or not looking, exactly. More like snuffling, nuzzling. I wasn't sure why he bothered, since we were only about fifty feet away.**

"He's blind." Silena said

**"Food?" Grover moaned.**

"You just blew their cover." Clarisse snarled

"I did not! And I was passed out!" Grover protested

**"Shhh," I told him. "Mom, what's he doing? Doesn't he see us?"**

**"His sight and hearing are terrible," she said. "He goes by smell. But he'll figure out where we are soon enough."**

**As if on cue, the bull-man bellowed in rage. He picked up Gabe's Camaro by the torn roof, the chassis creaking and groaning. He raised the car over his head and threw it down the road. It slammed into the wet asphalt and skidded in a shower of sparks for about half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas tank exploded.**

"Yeah!" Almost everyone in the room cheered Thalia and Nico the loudest

"That's one good thing the over sized bull has ever done." Clarisse grunted

_**Not a scratch, **_**I remembered Gabe saying.**

**Oops.**

Everyone in the room laughed louder at that.

**"Percy," my mom said. "When he sees us, he'll charge. Wait until the last second, then jump out of the way— directly sideways. He can't change directions very well once he's charging. Do you understand?"**

"Good strategy." Annabeth said approvingly

**"How do you know all this?"**

**"I've been worried about an attack for a long time. I should have expected this. I was selfish, keeping you near me."**

"She wasn't being selfish." Rachel said pausing

**"Keeping me near you? But—"**

**Another bellow of rage, and the bull-man started tromping uphill.**

**He'd smelled us.**

"Then you must really stink." Connor said

**The pine tree was only a few more yards, but the hill was getting steeper and slicker, and Grover wasn't getting any lighter.**

**The bull-man closed in. Another few seconds and he'd be on top of us.**

"That's a really stupid expression 'on top of'." Annabeth said

**My mother must've been exhausted, but she shouldered Grover. "Go, Percy! Separate! Remember what I said."**

**I didn't want to split up, but I had the feeling she was right—it was our only chance. I sprinted to the left, turned, and saw the creature bearing down on me. His black eyes glowed with hate. **

"How can someone's eyes glow with hate?" Chris asked

"Like the way Clarisse is looking at me right now." Percy replied

**He reeked like rotten meat.**

"Oh gross." Nico said

**He lowered his head and charged, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at my chest.**

**The fear in my stomach made me want to bolt,**

"Coward." Clarisse sneered

"What would you have done if there was a giant bull trying to kill you." Annabeth defended

"I would have stayed there and fight like a child of Ares."

"Well Percy's not a son of Ares." Annabeth said

"Thank gods." Percy and Clarisse said

**but that wouldn't work. I could never outrun this thing.**

**So I held my ground, and at the last moment, I jumped to the side.**

**The bull-man stormed past like a freight train, then bellowed with frustration and turned, but not toward me this time, toward my mother, who was setting Grover down in the grass.**

"No!" Everyone in the room almost screamed

**We'd reached the crest of the hill. Down the other side I could see a valley, just as my mother had said and the lights of a farmhouse glowing yellow through the rain. But that was half a mile away. We'd never make it.**

**The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground. He kept eyeing my mother, who was now retreating slowly downhill, back toward the road, trying to lead the monster away from Grover.**

"She probably saved my life." Grover muttered

"Sally is brave just like Percy." Tyson said

**"Run, Percy!" she told me. "I can't go any farther. Run!"**

**But I just stood there, frozen in fear, as the monster charged her. She tried to sidestep, as she'd told me to do, but the monster had learned his lesson.**

"Oh dear." Silena muttered covering her mouth in shock even though she knew what would happen

"Now he chooses to be smart." Nico muttered

**His hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck as she tried to get away. He lifted her as she struggled, kicking and pummeling the air.**

"Stupid monster." Tyson huffed angrily

"If I ever see that Minotaur again, I'm going to kill it." Percy said angrily

**"Mom!"**

**She caught my eyes, managed to choke out one last word: "Go!"**

**Then, with an angry roar, the monster closed his fists around my mother's neck, and she dissolved before my eyes, melting into light, a shimmering golden form, as if she were a holographic projection. A blinding flash, and she was simply ... gone.**

"What happened?" Nico asked

"You'll find out." Percy said bitterly remembering who had kidnapped his mother

**"No!"**

**Anger replaced my fear. Newfound strength burned in my limbs—the same rush of energy I'd gotten when Mrs. Dodds grew talons.**

"Here comes your freaky fish power." Nico said

**The bull-man bore down on Grover, who lay helpless in the grass. The monster hunched over, snuffling my best friend, as if he were about to lift Grover up and make him dissolve too.**

**I couldn't allow that.**

**I stripped off my red rain jacket.**

"There is a giant monster about to kill your best friend and you pause to take off your jacket?" Annabeth questioned

"Um…yes?" Percy replied slowly

"Are you insane? You could have died during those seconds you took to take off your jacket, or even worse you-"

"No, I only took it off to distract the Minotaur." Percy said really fast to avoid being murdered

**"Hey!" I screamed, waving the jacket, running to one side of the monster. "Hey, stupid! Ground beef!"**

"Ground beef? That's the best you can come up with?" Thalia snorted

"Yeah you sound like a school boy who's looking for a fight." Connor said

**"Raaaarrrrr!" The monster turned toward me, shaking his meaty fists.**

**I had an idea—a stupid idea, but better than no idea at all.**

"Seaweed brain can only come up with stupid ideas." Annabeth said

"Hey I can come up with good ideas." Percy argued

"Believe what you want." Annabeth said

**I put my back to the big pine tree and waved my red jacket in front of the bull-man, thinking I'd jump out of the way at the last moment.**

"That is the worst plan ever. You're facing a minotaur not a bull." Thalia said scowling

"Well, I'm sorry I don't have your amazing planning skills." Percy shot back

**But it didn't happen like that.**

"Of course it didn't." Rachel sighed

**The bull-man charged too fast, his arms out to grab me whichever way I tried to dodge.**

"Are you sure he wasn't just trying to strangle you?" Chris asked

"Yeah his arms were by my waist." Percy said

**Time slowed down.**

**My legs tensed. I couldn't jump sideways, so I leaped straight up, kicking off from the creature's head, using it as a springboard, turning in midair, and landing on his neck.**

"Impressive." Thalia said "But I've could have done better."

**How did I do that?**

"With your freaky fishy powers." Nico said sounding like an excited five year old

**I didn't have time to figure it out. A millisecond later, the monster's head slammed into the tree and the impact nearly knocked my teeth out.**

"Monsters are stupid." Connor said rolling his eyes

**The bull-man staggered around, trying to shake me. I locked my arms around his horns to keep from being thrown. Thunder and lightning were still going strong. The rain was in my eyes. The smell of rotten meat burned my nostrils.**

"Eeww." Silena said in disgust

"Why can't monsters smell nice?" Tyson asked

"Well I guess it's because it would be kind of weird if a Minotaur smelled like roses." Percy shrugged

**The monster shook himself around and bucked like a rodeo bull. He should have just backed up into the tree and smashed me flat, but I was starting to realize that this thing had only one gear: forward.**

"At least you were smart enough to realize that." Nico said

"And what would you have done if you were in my place? Scream like a girl." Percy said

"No." Nico said blushing

**Meanwhile, Grover started groaning in the grass. I wanted to yell at him to shut up, but the way I was getting tossed around, if I opened my mouth I'd bite my own tongue off.**

"Yeah, I'd rather you keep your tongue then tell me to shut up." Grover said

**"Food!" Grover moaned.**

"When do boys not think about food?" Rachel sighed

"When we're thinking about girls." Travis grinned which earned him a smack in the head by all the girls

**The bull-man wheeled toward him, pawed the ground again, and got ready to charge. I thought about how he had squeezed the life out of my mother, made her disappear in a flash of light,**

Percy clenched his teeth remembering what happened to his mother.

**and rage filled me like high-octane fuel. I got both hands around one horn and I pulled backward with all my might. The monster tensed, gave a surprised grunt, then—**_**snap!**_

"You ripped the horn off? Did you keep it as a souvenir." Nico asked excitedly sounding like his 10 year old self

"Yeah." Percy replied slightly amused

**The bull-man screamed and flung me through the air. I landed flat on my back in the grass. My head smacked against a rock. When I sat up, my vision was blurry, but I had a horn in my hands, a ragged bone weapon the size of a knife.**

"I can't believe you ripped the horn off with your wimpy arms." Clarisse said

"My arms aren't _wimpy…_any more."

**The monster charged.**

**Without thinking, I rolled to one side and came up kneeling. As the monster barreled past, I drove the broken horn straight into his side, right up under his furry rib cage.**

"Nice." Thalia said

"Yeah, quick thinking." Annabeth agreed

**The bull-man roared in agony. He flailed, clawing at his chest, then began to disintegrate—not like my mother, in a flash of golden light, but like crumbling sand, blown away in chunks by the wind, the same way Mrs. Dodds had burst apart.**

**The monster was gone.**

"No it turned into a fairy. What did you think it would do?" Clarisse said

"I don't know, die?" Percy said

**The rain had stopped. The storm still rumbled, but only in the distance. I smelled like livestock and my knees were shaking. My head felt like it was splitting open. I was weak and scared and trembling with grief I'd just seen my mother vanish.**

Clarisse was obviously going to say something but seeing the look on Percy's face she decided not to.

**I wanted to lie down and cry, but there was Grover, needing my help, so I managed to haul him up and stagger down into the valley, toward the lights of the farm house. I was crying, calling for my mother, but I held on to Grover—I wasn't going to let him go.**

"Thank you for that." Grover said to Percy who looked down

"No problem."

**The last thing I remember is collapsing on a wooden porch, looking up at a ceiling fan circling above me, moths flying around a yellow light, and the stern faces of a familiar-looking bearded man **

"Chiron." Beckendorf said

**and a pretty girl, her blond hair curled like a princess's.**

"5 bucks who that is." Travis said

"Annabeth!" Tyson cheered

"Princess?" Annabeth asked

"Yeah." Percy said blushing, this was not going to be good if the book revealed what he thought of Annabeth

**They both looked down at me, and the girl said, "He's the one. He must be."**

"He's the one." Silena said in a mystical voice

**"Silence, Annabeth," the man said. "He's still conscious. Bring him inside."**

"End of the chapter." Rachel said

"I wanna read." Connor said

Travis gasped loudly at this "Traitor!"

'Oh just start reading." Annabeth said

**Thank you to everyone who reviewed. Sorry that this chapter took so long I'll try to update faster. Please, please, please, please, please, please, please review. All suggestions are welcomed.**

**I have a poll on my profile so please vote which two characters I should add into the story. Your choices are Luke, Chiron, and all the Greek gods. **

**Please review. **

**-WishingWell414**


	5. I play Pinochle with a Horse

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson I'm not a 40 year old man.**

**Please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please review. **

**Chapter 5**

"**I play Pinochle with a Horse"**

**"****I Play Pinochle with a Horse," **Connor read after clearing his throat "sophisticatedly"

"If you're going to read like that for the rest of the chapter I'm going to take the book away." Annabeth threatened

"Yay, horsy!" Tyson yelled

**I had weird dreams full of barnyard animals. Most of them wanted to kill me. The rest wanted food.**

"Why would barn animals want to kill you?" Beckendorf asked

"Because he disrespected the most important rule to barn animals." Grover said

"And what is that?" Chris asked

"He didn't feed them." Grover said as if Percy just did the most terrible thing in the world

**I must've woken up several times, but what I heard and saw made no sense, so I just passed out again. I remember lying in a soft bed, being spoon-fed something that tasted like buttered popcorn, only it was pudding. The girl with curly blond hair hovered over me, smirking as she scraped drips off my chin with the spoon.**

"Aww, not even married and our little Annie's already feeding you." Connor awed

"Shut up Connor!" Annabeth and Percy yelled turning red

"What are you eating?" Rachel asked

"Pudding." Clarisse replied

**When she saw my eyes open, she asked, "What will happen at the summer solstice?"**

'_Bad things' _Percy thought remembering what could have happened

**I managed to croak, "What?"**

**She looked around, as if afraid someone would over hear. "What's going on? What was stolen? We've only got a few weeks!"**

"What was stolen?" Nico asked Thalia who had an equally confused look on her face

"The story will say." Percy replied

**"I'm sorry," I mumbled, "I don't..."**

**Somebody knocked on the door, and the girl quickly filled my mouth with pudding.**

"That's a great way to get somebody to shut up." Thalia snorted

**The next time I woke up, the girl was gone.**

"Did you miss her already?" Travis teased

"No" Percy said trying hard not to blush

**A husky blond dude, like a surfer, stood in the corner of the bedroom keeping watch over me. He had blue eyes- at least a dozen of them- on his cheeks, his forehead, the backs of his hands.**

"He has a lot more than a dozen eyes. They're everywhere." Chris chucked

**When I finally came around for good, there was nothing weird about my surroundings,**

"Really?" Rachel asked shocked

**except that they were nicer than I was used to. I was sitting in a deck chair on a huge porch, gazing across a meadow at green hills in the distance. The breeze smelled like strawberries. **

"That's our cover, strawberries." Silena said

**There was a blanket over my legs, a pillow behind my neck. All that was great, but my mouth felt like a scorpion had been using it for a nest. **

"How would you know what that felt like?" Nico asked

"Books." Percy replied

"You actually know what a book is?" Annabeth asked shocked

"Yes I do as a matter of fact." Percy said looking uncomfortable with all the odd looks that were being shot at him

**My tongue was dry and nasty and every one of my teeth hurt.**

"Yeah, that's what's going to happen if you take a piggyback ride on a Minotaur's back." Nico said

**On the table next to me was a tall drink. It looked like iced apple juice, with a green straw and a paper parasol stuck through a maraschino cherry.**

"Only an idiot like you would drink random stuff you find on a table. For all you know there could be cockroach eggs in there." Clarisse said

"Yeah but it was for me and there wasn't _cockroach eggs_ in there." Percy said

"You never know." Clarisse muttered

**My hand was so weak I almost dropped the glass once I got my fingers around it.**

**"Careful," a familiar voice said.**

"Me!" Grover said

**Grover was leaning against the porch railing, looking like he hadn't slept in a week.**

"I didn't." Grover muttered

**Under one arm, he cradled a shoe box. He was wearing blue jeans, Converse hi-tops and a bright orange T-shirt that said CAMP HALF-BLOOD.**

Everyone in the room cheered at this.

**Just plain old Grover, Not the goat boy.**

"Do you have something against '_goat boy_'?" Grover said starring at Percy accusingly

"No, I just meant that you didn't have the furry legs." Percy said quickly

**So maybe I'd had a nightmare. Maybe my mom was okay. We were still on vacation, and we'd stopped here at this big house for some reason. And...**

"That doesn't even make sense to me." Connor said

"He just lost his mother, you can't expect him to be in his right mind." Silena said

**"You saved my life," Grover said. "I... well, the least I could do ... I went back to the hill. I thought you might want this."**

**Reverently, he placed the shoe box in my lap.**

"You brought him shoes?" Rachel asked

"No, it was the horn." Grover said

**Inside was a black-and-white bull's horn, the base jagged from being broken off, the tip splattered with dried blood. It hadn't been a nightmare.**

**"The Minotaur," I said.**

"Haven't you learned anything?" Annabeth sighed exasperated "Names have power."

**"Urn, Percy, it isn't a good idea-"**

**"That's what they call him in the Greek myths, isn't it?" I demanded. "The Minotaur. Half man, half bull."**

"Shut up before you get us all killed." Clarisse snarled

"This happened in the past remember." Percy said

**Grover shifted uncomfortably. "You've been out for two days. How much do you remember?"**

**"My mom. Is she really ..."**

Everyone in the room looked down at this. Many of them didn't know Sally but she sounded very nice.

**He looked down.**

**I stared across the meadow. There were groves of trees, a winding stream, acres of strawberries spread out under the blue sky. The valley was surrounded by rolling hills, and the tallest one, directly in front of us, was the one with the huge pine tree on top. Even that looked beautiful in the sunlight.**

"What do you mean even _'that' _looked beautiful in the sunlight." Thalia hissed at Percy

"You should just be happy Percy called you beautiful." Travis snorted

"I am a hunter and I have permission to run you through with my arrows." Thalia said raising her fist threateningly

**My mother was gone. The whole world should be black and cold. Nothing should look beautiful.**

"Sometimes you feel like that, when someone you love is gone." Nico muttered and Percy winced at the words

**"I'm sorry," Grover sniffled. "I'm a failure. I'm- I'm the worst satyr in the world."**

"You are not." Percy scowled "You're the best satyr in the world."

"Thank you." Grover said beaming at his friend

**He moaned, stomping his foot so hard it came off. I mean, the Converse hi-top came off. The inside was filled with Styrofoam, except for a hoof-shaped hole.**

"That must have given you a heart attack." Rachel laughed

**"Oh, Styx!" he mumbled.**

"No cursing." Annabeth scowled

**Thunder rolled across the clear sky.**

**As he struggled to get his hoof back in the fake foot, I thought, well, that settles it.**

**Grover was a satyr. I was ready to bet that if I shaved his curly brown hair, I'd find tiny horns on his head.**

"He's a goat not the devil." Chris laughed

"I know, but sometimes I wonder." Percy said jokingly

**But I was too miserable to care that satyrs existed, or even Minotaurs. All that meant was my mom really had been squeezed into nothingness, dissolved into yellow light.**

**I was alone. An orphan. I would have to live with ... Smelly Gabe?**

"No, you would have stayed at camp and the mist would make people think you'd mysteriously disappeared off the face of this planet." Beckendorf said

**No. That would never happen. I would live on the streets first. I would pretend I was seventeen and join the army. I'd do something.**

"Those are some of the worst plans I've ever heard." Silena laughed

"Well they did come from Percy's mind." Annabeth said teasingly

**Grover was still sniffling. The poor kid- poor goat, satyr, whatever- looked as if he expected to be hit.**

"I did." Grover said to himself

**I said, "It wasn't your fault."**

**"Yes, it was. I was supposed to **_**protect **_**you."**

**"Did my mother ask you to protect me?"**

"No he's a keeper." Travis grinned at Connor

"Protecting half-bloods all over the world." Connor said in a heroic voice

**"No. But that's my job. I'm a keeper. At least... I was."**

**"But why ..." I suddenly felt dizzy, my vision swimming.**

**"Don't strain yourself," Grover said. "Here." He helped me hold my glass and put the straw to my lips.**

**I recoiled at the taste, because I was expecting apple juice.**

"Really? I was expecting… you know what lets move on." Nico said stopping abruptly

**It wasn't that at all. It was chocolate-chip cookies. Liquid cookies.**

"Wouldn't that taste weird?" Silena asked

"No, it was like melted chocolate." Percy said

**And not just any cookies- my mom's homemade blue chocolate-chip cookies, buttery and hot, with the chips still melting. Drinking it, my whole body felt warm and good, full of energy. My grief didn't go away, but I felt as if my mom had just brushed her hand against my cheek, given me a cookie the way she used to when I was small, and told me everything was going to be okay.**

**Before I knew it, I'd drained the glass. I stared into it, sure I'd just had a warm drink, but the ice cubes hadn't even melted.**

"Do you think I could drink some of that?" Rachel asked

"Not unless you want to burn up." Annabeth snorted

**"Was it good?" Grover asked.**

"Of course it was." Clarisse snorted

"I know, it was just incase he wasn't a half-blood and he started to burn up." Grover muttered

"He fought a fury and a Minotaur and you still don't think he's a half-blood?" Thalia said

**I nodded.**

**"What did it taste like?" He sounded so wistful, I felt guilty.**

**"Sorry," I said. "I should've let you taste."**

"If you did, than Goat Boy wouldn't be here with us today." Thalia said

"Stop calling me goat boy!" Grover whined

"Goat Boy, goat boy, goat boy, goat boy, goat boy!" Thalia grinned

**His eyes got wide. "No! That's not what I meant. I just... wondered."****.**

**"Chocolate-chip cookies," I said. "My mom's. Home made."**

**He sighed. "And how do you feel?"**

"Like the way half-bloods always feel when they have ambrosia." Clarisse snorted

**"Like I could throw Nancy Bobofit a hundred yards."**

"Do you think you could really think you could do that because if you can we can get out of this room and pay her a visit?" Nico asked

"I would but I think we should wait till the end of the book." Percy said chuckling at Nico's childish antics

**"That's good," he said. "That's good. I don't think you could risk drinking any more of that stuff"**

**"What do you mean?"**

**He took the empty glass from me gingerly, as if it were dynamite,**

"I did not! I was just putting it down gently." Grover said huffing

**and set it back on the table. "Come on. Chiron and Mr. D are waiting."**

"I don't get it why is it that you can call Chiron by his name and not Dionysus?" Rachel asked

"I think it's because Mr. D is a god and Chiron is a centaur." Annabeth answered

**The porch wrapped all the way around the farmhouse.**

**My legs felt wobbly, trying to walk that far. Grover offered to carry the Minotaur horn, but I held on to it. I'd paid for that souvenir the hard way. I wasn't going to let it go.**

"Again everyone in the room looked down." Travis narrated trying to ease the tension

"Why are you saying everything we do?"

"Annabeth commented." Travis said

"Stop doing that!"

"Annabeth screamed at Travis angrily." Travis said

"Travis screamed loudly as Annabeth beat him up." Travis said quickly before Annabeth punched him in the face and he screamed like a girl

**As we came around the opposite end of the house, I caught my breath.**

"Because you saw the amazingly gorgeous face of your future wife and soul mate, Annab-Ooff!" Connor started before getting punched in the stomach by a certain daughter of Athena

"Shut up Connor!" Annabeth and Percy both said at the same time blushing like tomatoes while everyone else sniggered

**We must've been on the north shore of Long Island, because on this side of the house, the valley marched all the way up to the water, which glittered about a mile in the distance. Between here and there, I simply couldn't process everything I was seeing.**

"Your brain seems not to be able to process a lot of stuff." Clarisse said

"At least I have one." Percy said

"Oh, Burn!" Connor yelled

**The landscape was dotted with buildings that looked like ancient Greek architecture; an open-air pavilion, an amphitheater, a circular arena, except that they all looked brand new, their white marble columns sparkling in the sun. In a nearby sandpit, a dozen high school-age kids and satyrs played volleyball. Canoes glided across a small lake. Kids in bright orange T-shirts like Grover's were chasing each other around a cluster of cabins nestled in the woods. **

"Why were they chasing each other?" Tyson asked

"I don't know maybe they were playing tag or something." Annabeth sighed

**Some shot targets at an archery range. Others rode horses down a wooded trail, and, unless I was hallucinating, some of their horses had wings.**

"Why would you think your hallucinating, your father created horses, you can talk to them, they bow down to you, why would you be hallucinating?" Rachel gasped

"Again I didn't know any of this stuff existed." Percy said annoyed with all the criticism, how well did they take all of this half-blood stuff

**Down at the end of the porch, two men sat across from each other at a card table. The blond-haired girl who'd spoon-fed me popcorn-flavored pudding was leaning on the porch rail next to them.**

"Annie Beth!" Travis yelled despite himself

"I told you not to call me that!" Annabeth hissed, her gray eyes glowing

"No you told me not to call you Annie." Travis said weakly praying to every god he could think of. Finally after what seemed like hours, Annabeth stopped glaring

**The man facing me was small, but porky. He had a red nose, big watery eyes, and curly hair so black it was almost purple.**

"Are you describing Mr. D…?" Chris said

"Uh…yeah?"

There was a moment of complete silence before everyone in the room burst out laughing

**He looked like those paintings of baby angels- what do you call them, hubbubs? **

Connor laughed loudly as he said the last word "Hubbubs!" he said again before cracking up

"Let's move on." Thalia said starring at him as if she had never seen anyone quite like him

**No, cherubs. That's it. He looked like a cherub who'd turned middle-aged in a trailer park.**

"Well that was rude." Nico said

"Are you denying it?" Percy asked raising an eyebrow

**He wore a tiger-pattern Hawaiian shirt, and he would've fit right in at one of Gabe's poker parties,**

"That was an insult to gods everywhere." Nico said

**except I got the feeling this guy could've out-gambled even my step father.**

"He could out gamble anyone except for Chiron." Beckendorf said

"And if he doesn't, he could just turn them into a one legged satyr without his furry bunny tail!" Grover said causing several funny looks to be thrown at him

**"That's Mr. D," Grover murmured to me. "He's the camp director. Be polite. The girl, that's Annabeth Chase. She's just a camper,**

"Excuse me!" Annabeth yelled at Grover ready to punch him

"I didn't finish!" Grover said praying for his life

**but she's been here longer than just about anybody. And you already know Chiron..."**

"That's better." Annabeth grinned, patting Grover on the cheek

**He pointed at the guy whose back was to me.**

**First, I realized he was sitting in the wheelchair. Then I recognized the tweed jacket, the thinning brown hair, the scraggly beard.**

**"Mr. Brunner!" I cried.**

"Chiron." Thalia corrected unable to stop herself

"I know." Percy said

**The Latin teacher turned and smiled at me. His eyes had that mischievous glint they sometimes got in class when he pulled a pop quiz and made all the multiple choice answers **_**B**_**.**

"Why would he do that? If someone got all the right answers then they would think it was wrong because the answers were all B's." Annabeth said

"It was funny." Percy said

**"Ah, good, Percy," he said. "Now we have four for pinochle."**

"That's the first thing he said to you after you were attacked by a Minotaur and lost your mother?" Rachel gasped

"Yep, pretty much." Percy shrugged

"You know we should really get a camp psychologist." Annabeth thought out loud

"Yeah, hey psychologist I just killed some monsters today and now I'm seeing my stepmother who's jealous because my father cheated on her with my mother, what do I do?" Thalia said sarcastically

Annabeth huffed loudly "It was just a suggestion."

**He offered me a chair to the right of Mr. D, who looked at me with bloodshot eyes and heaved a great sigh. "Oh, I suppose I must say it. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. There. Now, don't expect me to be glad to see you."**

"Aww, isn't that a nice greeting to the new camper?" Thalia said snorting

"When is Mr. D ever nice?" Connor snorted

"When he cured me from possible sanity." Chris said wincing; Clarisse noticed and linked her hand with his unnoticed to anyone except for Silena who grinned at her

**"Uh, thanks." I scooted a little farther away from him because, **_**if **_**there was one thing I had learned from living with Gabe, it was how to tell when an adult has been hitting the happy juice. **

"Happy Juice, what's that?" Nico asked with wide eyes

"Alcohol!" Percy almost yelled

"Oh, hehe happy juice." Nico said laughing like a maniac

"Just when I thought there was hope that you wouldn't turn out like my other doofuses cousin." Thalia sighed

**If Mr. D was a stranger to alcohol, I was a satyr.**

"Percy a satyr?" Tyson asked mishearing the words

"No, it's-never mind." Percy sighed

**"Annabeth?" Mr. Brunner called to the blond girl.**

"Annie!" Travis yelled before getting pushed off his chair

**She came forward and Mr. Brunner introduced us. "This young lady nursed you back to health, Percy. **

"Aww, Annie's already playing nurse for you." Connor cooed

Everyone in the room squeezed their eyes closed at this waiting for Connor to be murdered.

"Good luck in the underworld buddy." Beckendorf sighed as they heard screams around the room

After barely escaping Annabeth's wrath Connor got up and started to read

**Annabeth, my dear, why don't you go check on Percy's bunk? We'll be putting him in cabin eleven for now."**

"The best cabin that there is!" Travis grinned

"If my description is bad I will chop off your head and put it in Nico's food." Annabeth threatening

"Wait a minute, WHAT!" Nico yelled "We didn't discuss this!" he yelled at Annabeth

Annabeth shrugged, while Percy and Nico both prayed that the description of Annabeth was wonderful.

**Annabeth said, "Sure, Chiron."**

**She was probably my age, maybe a couple of inches taller, and a whole lot more athletic looking. With her deep tan and her curly blond hair, she was almost exactly what I thought a stereotypical California girl would look like,**

"A stereotypical California girl?" Annabeth said amused

**except her eyes ruined the image. They were startling gray, like storm clouds; pretty, but intimidating, too, as if she were analyzing the best way to take me down in a fight.**

Percy and Nico sighed in relief when they noticed the tension leave Annabeth's face

"What is the best way to take my down in a fight?" Percy asked Annabeth

"You're left side is weak." She replied

**She glanced at the minotaur horn in my hands, then back at me. I imagined she was going to say, **_**You killed a minotaur! **_**or **_**Wow, you're so awesome! **_**or something like that.**

Everyone in the room burst out laughing at that.

"You actually thought that-Ha Ha, our Annabeth would-Ha-say that! Ha Ha! Oh my side!" Thalia laughed before clutching her side in pain from laughing to hard

"Oh my I need air!" Nico managed to gasp out between his laughs

Finally everyone managed to calm down and Connor continued to read.

**Instead she said, "You drool when you sleep."**

At this everyone burst out laughing again.

"Holy mother of gods! This book is going to kill me!" Chris wheezed out

"I need apples!" Grover gasped

**Then she sprinted off down the lawn, her blond hair flying behind her.**

"What a nice way to dismiss yourself." Thalia snorted after everyone got over there laughing fit

**"So," I said, anxious to change the subject. "You, uh, work here, Mr. Brunner?"**

"Chiron." Silena said glaring at Percy "Say it with me; come on 2 syllables, Chiron!"

"Chiron. Geez, I didn't know back then." Percy said

**"Not Mr. Brunner," the ex- Mr. Brunner**

"It sounds like you just broke up with him." Clarisse said disgusted

"We did, didn't you hear? I was so heart broken." Percy said pretending to wipe a few tears away while everyone else pretended to throw up

**said. "I'm afraid that was a pseudonym. You may call me Chiron."**

"Uh! Adults and there big words. What does pudonymth even mean? " Travis said

"It's pseudonym and it means false name." Annabeth said

**"Okay." Totally confused, I looked at the director. "And Mr. D ... does that stand for something?"**

"No of course it doesn't. His name is Mr. D and his mother named him that when he was born." Thalia said rolling her eyes

"Think a little seaweed brain." Annabeth grinned punching Percy "affectionately" on the arm

**Mr. D stopped shuffling the cards. He looked at me like I'd just belched loudly. "Young man, names are powerful things. You don't just go around using them for no reason."**

**"Oh. Right. Sorry."**

**"I must say, Percy," Chiron-Brunner broke in, "I'm glad to see you alive. It's been a long time since I've made a house call to a potential camper. I'd hate to think I've wasted my time."**

"He did waste his time." Clarisse snorted

"Shut up!" Percy grumbled

**"House call?"**

**"My year at Yancy Academy, to instruct you. We have satyrs at most schools, of course, keeping a lookout. But Grover alerted me as soon as he met you. He sensed you were something special,**

"In the head maybe." Clarisse said

"Gotta agree with you there." Thalia snickered

**so I decided to come upstate. I convinced the other Latin teacher to ... ah, take a leave of absence."**

"What did Chiron do to him?" Rachel yelled shocked

"Nothing to horrible." Annabeth said

**I tried to remember the beginning of the school year. It seemed like so long ago, but I did have a fuzzy memory of there being another Latin teacher my first week at Yancy. Then, without explanation, he had disappeared and Mr. Brunner had taken the class.**

"Disappeared off the face of the earth, that's just the way the gods roll." Grover said causing Rachel to gulp

**"You came to Yancy just to teach me?" I asked.**

"No, he came to Yancy just to meet Nancy Bobofit, the nicest person on the planet, and by the way did you meet my pet unicorn, Harry?" Thalia said her voice dripping with sarcasm

"There was so much sarcasm in that sentence that I might have just missed it all." Percy said

"You have a pet unicorn? Can I meet it?" Nico said looking at Thalia with awe

"Of course you can, right after I jump off the Grand Canyon."

**Chiron nodded. "Honestly, I wasn't sure about you at first.**

"We're still not sure about you." Annabeth said

"What is this, tease Percy day?"

"Yup." Connor and Travis answered smirking

"Tomorrow its punch Percy day." Clarisse said with a wicked gleam in her eye

**We contacted your mother, let her know we were keeping an eye on you in case you were ready for Camp Half-Blood. But you still had so much to learn. **

"Both mentally and physically." Rachel said joining in unable to help herself

"Not you too!" Percy groaned

**Nevertheless, you made it here alive, and that's always the first test."**

"It's also the test that most kids fail." Silena said to herself remembering the role she played in this war **(major foreshadowing) **

**"Grover," Mr. D said impatiently, "are you playing or not?"**

**"Yes, sir!" Grover trembled as he took the fourth chair, though I didn't know why he should be so afraid of a pudgy little man in a tiger-print Hawaiian shirt.**

"That pudgy little man in a tiger-print Hawaiian shirt could kill me by snapping his fingers." Grover said than quickly clasping his hand over his mouth in fear that he would get turned into a bunch of grapes

**"You **_**do **_**know how to play pinochle?" Mr. D eyed me suspiciously.**

**"I'm afraid not," I said.**

**"I'm afraid not, **_**sir**_**," he said.**

**"Sir," I repeated. I was liking the camp director less and less.**

"Really? I hated him the minute I saw him." Nico said

"Really because for some reason I remember 'I totally think your powers are sweet!' or is it just my mind playing tricks on me." Percy said

"It's probably just your mind playing tricks on you, I find that small brains tend to do that." Nico said snarling at Percy

**"Well," he told me, "it is, along with gladiator fighting and Pac-Man, one of the greatest games ever invented by humans. I would expect all **_**civilized **_**young men to know the rules."**

"Well, Percy's not civilized is he?" Silena giggled

**"I'm sure the boy can learn," Chiron said.**

**"Please," I said, "what is this place? What am I doing here? Mr. Brun-Chiron, why would you go to Yancy Academy just to teach me?"**

**Mr. D snorted. "I asked the same question."**

"I think I'm starting to like him better now." Thalia grinned

**The camp director dealt the cards. Grover flinched every time one landed in his pile.**

"Why? It's not like there going to blow up or anything." Rachel said

"You never know."

**Chiron smiled at me sympathetically, the way he used to in Latin class, as if to let me know that no matter what my average was, **_**I **_**was his star student. He expected **_**me **_**to have the right answer.**

"Why is it he never looks at me like that?" Connor groaned

"Because he hates you." Annabeth replied

"It's not my fault the fireworks landed by his tail and it caught on fire. I was aiming for the Demeter cabin." Connor said as if that made everything better

**"Percy," he said. "Did your mother tell you nothing?'**

**"She said ..." I remembered her sad eyes, looking out over the sea. "She told me she was afraid to send me here, even though my father had wanted her to. She said that once I was here, I probably couldn't leave. She wanted to keep me close to her."**

**"Typical," Mr. D said. "That's how they usually get killed. Young man, are you bidding or not?"**

"It's not their fault they want to keep their child close to them." Rachel said

**"What?" I asked.**

**He explained, impatiently, how you bid in pinochle, and so I did.**

**"I'm afraid there's too much to tell," Chiron said. "I'm afraid our usual orientation film won't be sufficient."**

**"Orientation film?" I asked.**

"I love the orientation film, it's so awesome!" Nico said

"Yeah I know. 'If you meet a monster the first thing you do is drive a sword through their body and wait for them to turn into fairy dust than you ask questions.' I loved that part." Beckendorf said

"Am I the only one who didn't get to see it?" Percy asked

'Yeah pretty much." Annabeth said

**"No," Chiron decided. "Well, Percy. You know your friend Grover is a satyr. You know-" he pointed to the horn in the shoe box- "that you have killed the Minotaur. No small feat, either, lad. What you may not know is that great powers are at work in your life. Gods- the forces you call the Greek gods- are very much alive."**

"That must have been a shocker." Grover said remembering the look on his face

"I can't wait to hear about his reaction, it could be blackmail." Thalia said grinning

**I stared at the others around the table.**

**I waited for somebody to yell, **_**Not! **_**But all I got was Mr. D yelling, "Oh, a royal marriage. Trick! Trick!" He cackled as he tallied up his points.**

"What is he talking about." Tyson asked

"Pinochle." Percy replied

**"Mr. D," Grover asked timidly, "if you're not going to eat it, could I have your Diet Coke can?"**

"It's nice to see you haven't changed over the years." Chris chuckled at Grover who was chewing on his own shirt for the fun of it

**"Eh? Oh, all right."**

**Grover bit a huge shard out of the empty aluminum can and chewed it mournfully.**

**"Wait," I told Chiron. "You're telling me there's such a thing as god."**

"Gods with an _s _and it's capitalized." Annabeth said

**"Well, now," Chiron said. "God- capital **_**G**_**, God. That's a different matter altogether. We shan't deal with the metaphysical."**

**"Metaphysical? But you were just talking about-"**

**"Ah, gods, plural, as in, great beings that control the forces of nature and human endeavors: the immortal gods of Olympus. That's a smaller matter."**

"The Gods aren't a small matter; they're a huge matter I mean each of them takes up like 20 feet of space." Nico huffed

"I don't think he was talking about that kind of matter." Rachel said awkwardly

**"Smaller?"**

**"Yes, quite. The gods we discussed in Latin class."**

**"Zeus," I said. "Hera. Apollo. You mean them."**

"It's funny how you left your own father out." Annabeth said

'It's funny how I left your mother out." Percy said

**And there it was again, distant thunder on a cloud less day.**

**"Young man," said Mr. D, "I would really be less casual about throwing those names around, if I were you."**

**"But they're stories," I said. "They're- myths, to explain lightning and the seasons and stuff. They're what people believed before there was science."**

"Science! There is no such thing as science. It's something that mortals made up to explain things that they tried to deny." Clarisse said

**"Science!" Mr. D scoffed. "And tell me, Perseus Jackson"-I flinched when he said my real name, which I never told anybody- "what will people think of your 'science' two thousand years from now?"**

"It's amazing how alike Clarisse and Mr. D are." Travis snickered

"We are not alike." Clarisse growled

**Mr. D continued. "Hmm? They will call it primitive mumbo jumbo. That's what. Oh, I love mortals- they have absolutely no sense of perspective. They think they've come **_**so-o-o **_**far. And have they, Chiron? Look at this boy and tell me."**

"We've gotten pretty far, we've invented a lot of cool stuff, for example the i-touch." Rachel said

"Yeah you can say a lot about mortal but you cannot insult the _touch_." Grover said seriously

**I wasn't liking Mr. D much, but there was something about the way he called me mortal, as if... he wasn't.**

"He's a god, of course he isn't a mortal, and the closest he ever got to being mortal is sleeping with a mortal." Nico said

**It was enough to put a lump in my throat, to suggest why Grover was dutifully minding his cards, chewing his soda can, and keeping his mouth shut.**

'You thought Mr. D was weird when Grover was eating a soda can?" Thalia said raising an eyebrow

"What's weird about enjoying a soda can especially diet coke ones." Grover said looking hurt

**"Percy," Chiron said, "you may choose to believe or not, but the fact is that **_**immortal **_**means immortal. Can you imagine that for a moment, never dying? Never fading? Existing, just as you are, for all time?"**

**I was about to answer, off the top of my head, that it sounded like a pretty good deal, but the tone of Chiron's voice made me hesitate.**

"Immortality is more than just living forever, you watch everyone you ever love die, while you live." Annabeth said

"Being able to live forever sounds pretty good to me." Travis shrugged

**"You mean, whether people believed in you or not," I said.**

**"Exactly," Chiron agreed. "If you were a god, how would you like being called a myth, an old story to explain lightning? What if I told you, Perseus Jackson, that some day people would call **_**you **_**a myth, just created to explain how little boys can get over losing their mothers?"**

"Harsh." Chris winced

**My heart pounded. He was trying to make me angry for some reason, but I wasn't going to let him. I said, "I wouldn't like it. But I don't believe in gods."**

**"Oh, you'd better," Mr. D murmured. "Before one of them incinerates you."**

"The one of them that is in the room and is playing pinochle." Beckendorf said

**Grover said, "P-please, sir. He's just lost his mother. He's in shock."**

"Yeah that's why and it's not because of the fact that he is a complete idiot." Annabeth said jokingly

**"A lucky thing, too," Mr. D grumbled, playing a card. "Bad enough I'm confined to this miserable job, working with boys who don't even believe."**

"Believe Percy! Believe in Magic and Tinker Bell will be saved!" Travis screamed

"Uh… I don't know him." Connor muttered

**He waved his hand and a goblet appeared on the table, as if the sunlight had bent, momentarily, and woven the air into glass. The goblet filled itself with red wine.**

"Cheater!" Tyson gasped

**My jaw dropped, but Chiron hardly looked up.**

**"Mr. D," he warned, "your restrictions."**

**Mr. D looked at the wine and feigned surprise.**

**"Dear me." He looked at the sky and yelled, "Old habits! Sorry!"**

"Please tell me my father didn't fall for that." Thalia groaned

**More thunder.**

"Thank you." She muttered

**Mr. D waved his hand again, and the wineglass changed into a fresh can of Diet Coke. He sighed unhappily, popped the top of the soda, and went back to his card game.**

**Chiron winked at me. "Mr. D offended his father a while back, took a fancy to a wood nymph who had been declared off-limits."**

"Ah, gods and their ability of unable to keep it in their pants." Connor sighed

"Eeww." Thalia groaned

**"A wood nymph," I repeated, still staring at the Diet Coke can like it was from outer space.**

"Where did he get it from?" Rachel asked curious

"I don't know maybe he produced it from thin air." Annabeth said

**"Yes," Mr. D confessed. "Father loves to punish me. **

"I doubt it he probably just wants to get him off of his lazy butt." Thalia snickered

**The first time, Prohibition. Ghastly! Absolutely horrid ten years! The second time- well, she really was pretty, and I couldn't stay away- the second time, he sent me here. Half-Blood Hill. Summer camp for brats like you. 'Be a better influence,' he told me. 'Work with youths rather than tearing them down.' Ha.' Absolutely unfair."**

**Mr. D sounded about six years old, like a pouting little kid.**

"I wonder what would happen if Mr. D read the books." Silena said wistfully

'He'd probably turn Percy into a dolphin." Grover said

**"And ..." I stammered, "your father is ..."**

"What is wrong with you?" Nico said

"Well I'm sorry I had a hard time excepting that the Gods and monsters were real." Percy said

_**"Di immortales, **_**Chiron," Mr. D said. "I thought you taught this boy the basics. My father is Zeus, of course."**

**I ran through D names from Greek mythology. Wine. The skin of a tiger. The satyrs that all seemed to work here. The way Grover cringed, as if Mr. D were his master.**

"It took you that long to figure it out, I knew after a second." Annabeth said

"Well I'm sorry we can't all be super geniuses like you." Percy said

**"You're Dionysus," I said. "The god of wine."**

**Mr. D rolled his eyes. "What do they say, these days, Grover? Do the children say, 'Well, duh!'?"**

**"Y-yes, Mr. D."**

**"Then, well, duh! Percy Jackson. Did you think I was Aphrodite, perhaps?"**

"Can you imagine Mr. D as Aphrodite spreading love everywhere? Oh I love you everyone but I love tragic endings so I'm going to kill you and make you're girlfriend fall in love with you're brother." Thalia snickered

"My mom wouldn't do that she loves a tragic ending but she's not _that_ cruel!" Silena yelled

**"You're a god."**

**"Yes, child."**

**"A god. You."**

"He's going to kill you." Clarisse snorted

**He turned to look at me straight on, and I saw a kind of purplish fire in his eyes, a hint that this whiny, plump little man was only showing me the tiniest bit of his true nature. I saw visions of grape vines choking unbelievers to death, drunken warriors insane with battle lust, sailors screaming as their hands turned to flippers, their faces elongating into dolphin snouts. I knew that if I pushed him, Mr. D would show me worse things. He would plant a disease in my brain that would leave me wearing a strait-jacket in a rubber room for the rest of my life.**

"That was creepy." Nico said

"This coming from the king of creepy himself." Percy said

**"Would you like to test me, child?" he said quietly.**

**"No. No, sir."**

**The fire died a little. He turned back to his card game. "I believe I win."**

"Yeah right he hasn't won a game in centuries." Thalia snickered

**"Not quite, Mr. D," Chiron said. He set down a straight, tallied the points, and said, "The game goes to me."**

**I thought Mr. D was going to vaporize Chiron right out of his wheelchair, but he just sighed through his nose, as if he were used to being beaten by the Latin teacher. He got up, and Grover rose, too.**

"I wonder what it was like the first time Mr. D lost to Chiron." Silena said wistfully

"He probably shot wine out of his hands and went around driving people insane." Nico said

**"I'm tired," Mr. D said. "I believe I'll take a nap before the sing-along tonight. But first, Grover, we need to talk, **_**again, **_**about your less-than-perfect performance on this assignment."**

**Grover's face beaded with sweat. "Y-yes, sir."**

**Mr. D turned to me. "Cabin eleven, Percy Jackson. And mind your manners."**

"This is the part where you go into the coolest cabin ever and meet the coolest people ever." Connor smirked along with Travis

"You mean I go into the Poseidon cabin and meet Annabeth?" Percy asked

**He swept into the farmhouse, Grover following miserably.**

**"Will Grover be okay?" I asked Chiron.**

**Chiron nodded, though he looked a bit troubled. "Old Dionysus isn't really mad. He just hates his job.**

"And we all wish he could just leave from his job." Travis muttered

"He can be quite useful sometimes." Clarisse said thinking of Chris

**He's been ... ah, grounded, I guess you would say, and he can't stand waiting another century before he's allowed to go back to Olympus."**

**"Mount Olympus," I said. "You're telling me there really is a palace there?"**

"Yeah and the architecture is beautiful too." Annabeth said

Percy quickly gestured for Connor to continue before she could start a lecture on columns

**"Well now, there's Mount Olympus in Greece.**

"Uh! Do we have to hear the whole lecture on western civilization." Travis whined

"Yes we do." Annabeth said

**And then there's the home of the gods, the convergence point of their powers, which did indeed used to be on Mount Olympus. It's still called Mount Olympus, out of respect to the old ways, but the palace moves, Percy, just as the gods do."**

**"You mean the Greek gods are here? Like ... in **_**America**_**?"**

"No he means in Cuba." Thalia said sarcastically

**"Well, certainly. The gods move with the heart of the West."**

**"The what?"**

**"Come now, Percy. What you call 'Western civilization.' Do you think it's just an abstract concept? No, it's a living force. A collective consciousness that has burned bright for thousands of years. The gods are part of it. You might even say they are the source of it, or at least, they are tied so tightly to it that they couldn't possibly fade, not unless all of Western civilization were obliterated. The fire started in Greece. Then, as you well know- or as I hope you know, since you passed my course- the heart of the fire moved to Rome, and so did the gods. Oh, different names, perhaps- Jupiter for Zeus, Venus for Aphrodite, and so on- but the same forces, the same gods."**

**"And then they died."**

"How thick can you be?" Clarisse groaned

Even Tyson had to say something to his half-brother "Gods are real. Daddy Poseidon."

**"Died? No. Did the West die? The gods simply moved, to Germany, to France, to Spain, for a while. Wherever the flame was brightest, the gods were there. They spent several centuries in England. All you need to do is look at the architecture.**

"Architecture." Annabeth said getting a faraway look in her eye

**People do not forget the gods. Every place they've ruled, for the last three thousand years,**

"I thought the Gods have been around a lot longer than three thousand years." Rachel said

**you can see them in paintings, in statues, on the most important buildings. And yes, Percy, of course they are now in your United States. Look at your symbol, the eagle of Zeus. Look at the statue of Prometheus in Rockefeller Center, the Greek facades of your government buildings in Washington. I defy you to find any American city where the Olympians are not prominently displayed in multiple places. Like it or not- and believe me, plenty of people weren't very fond of Rome, either- America is now the heart of the flame. It is the great power of the West. And so Olympus is here. And we are here."**

**It was all too much, especially the fact that **_**I **_**seemed to be included in Chiron's **_**we, **_**as if I were part of some club.**

"Yes welcome to the club of heroes and super smart people! Mwah Ha Ha Ha!" Connor laughed like a maniac

**"Who are you, Chiron? Who ... who am I?"**

"You're Percy Jackson remember?" Tyson said

**Chiron smiled. He shifted his weight as if he were going to get up out of his wheelchair, but I knew that was impossible. He was paralyzed from the waist down.**

"What part of Chiron don't you understand? Haven't you ever watched Hercules as a kid?" Clarisse snorted

"No! And how was I suppose to know that my Latin teacher was half horse!" Percy huffed back angrily

**"Who are you?" he mused. "Well, that's the question we all want answered, isn't it**

"I don't think Percy meant that as a psychological question but as literal who are you." Chris chuckled

**But for now, we should get you a bunk in cabin eleven. There will be new friends to 'meet. And plenty of time for lessons tomorrow. Besides, there will be smores at the campfire tonight, and I simply adore chocolate."**

"Smores!" Almost every boy chanted

"Chocolate the greatest invention in the world." Silena sighed

**And then he did rise from his wheelchair. But there was something odd about the way he did it. His blanket fell away from his legs, but the legs didn't move. His waist kept getting longer, rising above his belt. At first, I thought he was wearing very long, white velvet underwear,**

"People don't wear that unless they live in Alaska." Nico said

"How would you know?" Percy asked confused

"Uh… let's just say it was one of my many failed experiments."

**but as he kept rising out of the chair, taller than any man, I realized that the velvet underwear wasn't underwear; it was the front of an animal, muscle and sinew under coarse white fur. And the wheelchair wasn't a chair. It was some kind of container, an enormous box on wheels, **

"It must have been uncomfortable to have you're but trapped in a box." Beckendorf winced

"Not really it's like sitting in a trashcan." Connor said

"How would you know what that feels like?" Annabeth asked

Connor glanced at Clarisse and everyone understood.

**and it must've been magic, because there's no way it could've held all of him. A leg came out, long and knobby-kneed, with a huge polished hoof. Then another front leg, then hindquarters, and then the box was empty, nothing but a metal shell with a couple of fake human legs attached.**

"What is with you people and fake legs." Rachel asked

**I stared at the horse who had just sprung from the wheelchair: a huge white stallion. But where its neck should be was the upper body of my Latin teacher, smoothly grafted to the horse's trunk.**

**"What a relief," the centaur said. "I'd been cooped up in there so long, my fetlocks had fallen asleep. Now, come, Percy Jackson. Let's meet the other campers."**

"And the end." Connor said flipping to the next chapter

"I'll read." Travis said

"Well don't break anything." Connor muttered causing Travis to glare

**Author's Note: I am so sorry I haven't updated in almost 3 weeks but I think I have a good reason. I have had finals and 5 projects due and when I was finally able to write my computer crashed and all my data got erased.**

**Thank you for everyone who has reviewed and I love your comments and advice. Please, please review all you have to do is press the blue button under all the words and press the keys.**

**I have a poll on my profile so please vote which 2 characters I should add to my story \. Your choices are Luke, Chiron, and any of the Greek Gods.**

**By the way did anyone read the preview for the Son of Neptune it's coming out on October 4****th****. **

**Press the blue button that says review this chapter.**

**-WishingWell414**


	6. Reflections

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson or any of the characters; I only own the crappy writing on this page**

Percy sat on the bed in the room that was provided for him in the huge room that contained smaller rooms starring at the ceiling hoping for something to drop out of the ceiling that would contain the answers to all the questions in his head. But nothing came.

"Am I the child of the prophecy or not?" Percy sighed annoyed, of course he didn't want it to be him but he also didn't want it to be Nico, the kid was messed up but his heart was in the right place.

And there were other things to, what if he was the child of the prophecy, and what then? He could only begin to imagine the horrors that he would have to face if he was the child of the prophecy.

And of course there was Annabeth, they kissed before the explosion on Mt. Helen but nothing had happen since than, was he suppose to make the first move? And there was also Rachel, he liked Annabeth, really he did, but with Rachel he didn't have to argue and he could have a chance of a normal life with her.

The book was another problem and at the same time it was one of the best gifts he had ever gotten, he didn't really feel comfortable about everyone knowing every thought that went through his head, especially about Annabeth and all the half-blood stuff but they gave him a wake up call, he was a half- blood who was probably the child of some great prophecy that no one wanted him to know.

He didn't even want to find out his future as the letter said he would, all he wanted to do was go home and eat his mom's homemade blue chocolate chip cookie and hide from all his troubles like any other kid would.

He stopped to clear his head from all the thoughts running through his head for a second and ran his finger through his hair. He leaned back and felt his back come in contact with the soft mattress and closed his eyes and hoped he would be in a better world in his sleep. But of course he didn't, things never went his way.

Life was complicated.

Nico sat in the kitchen devouring anything in sight, what could he say, he was a teenage boy. Despite the fact that he had no idea who was cooking this or where it came from he had to admit it was delicious.

To be honest he had no idea what he was doing here, he didn't belong here with all these half-bloods, hell he didn't want to be here! He had no idea why the stupid person or what ever the heck sent them here thought he would be important; he was just an outcast son of Hades who lost his sister.

He was planning to leave get away from all this half-blood stuff by trying to find out more about his mother, his past and all though he would admit it to no one get away from Percy. A small and hidden part of him still blamed Percy for Bianca's death.

"Hey." A voice said making him shoot up 3 feet into the air

"Sorry." The voice laughed

Nico turned around to glare at the voice "What are you doing here?"

"Well I was hoping to get something to eat before you inhale it all, seriously how do you boys stay so thin." Rachel said bewildered looking at all the empty plates on the table

"Leave me alone." He huffed, he was starting to like this mortal less and less

"You're upset." She observed raising her eyebrows

"I'm always upset." Nico grumbled

"Tell me what's making you sad." Rachel said taking a seat across from him

"You're not going to leave are you?" Nico sighed chewing gently on the crust of what used to be a sandwich

"Nope."

"Okay well the first thing that's bothering me is you!"

"Just tell me what's making you upset and I'll leave. Is it Bianca, Percy told me about her."

At this Nico gritted his teeth "Why won't anyone just leave me the hell alone! How many times do I have to say this before someone realizes that I want to be alone! And you leave me alone! I don't know you and you don't want to help me, you'll give up on me eventually, every one does, you're just a stupid mortal who's trying to pretend to be a demigod, well you're not and I would trade places with you everyday because if it wasn't for you half-bloods my sister would still be alive!"

Rachel looked at him with sympathy, the kid was messed up in ways she didn't know nut she couldn't help but feel sympathy "I don't want you're sympathy either!" he cried hugging his knees to his chest and buried his face in his knees

"My parents don't care." Rachel said moving from her seat to stand next to Nico "My father is this wealthy business man and he has much better things to do than deal with his annoying teenage daughter who is just a complication in life. I never really fit in with all the other girls and I'd much rather do something for charity than go shopping like most girls would. I would like to say I know how you feel but the truth is I don't. I don't know how it feels to not remember anything. I don't know how it feels to be a half-blood or a son of Hades. I don't know what it's like to lose someone you love a lot but I do know how it feels to have people who care for you and you feel that to, you just won't admit it. You're so busy trying to be this depressing person who hates life you've forgotten that you're a kid who should probably be watching Disney shows and drooling over girls you're age."

Rachel stopped and glanced at Nico who remained still. "Percy told me you liked a game called Myththology?"

"It's Mythomagic." Nico grumbled

"Can you tell me how it's played?"

"It's a stupid game for kids."

"But you are a kid." Rachel said and she sounded so much like Bianca that Nico looked up and for a second he could have sworn he saw Bianca and not Rachel, he looked down clearly disappointed and squeezed his eyes shut.

"Well the games simple really…"

**(Major Spoilers Here!)**

Silena sat in her room starring into the eyes of her reflection. She was a traitor that was the only thing she could think of, she was the spy. In the beginning it seemed like a good idea, fewer lives would be taken, that's what Luke had said, but if anything only more lives were taken.

She knew that if she were caught she would probably be killed and now here they were here reading about Percy and from the letter it sounded like they would find out about the future to she would be caught for sure. She didn't get why the person who had brought them to this room had sent her here too, she was a traitor… unless the person wanted her to change something. Was she suppose to tell her friends? What would Charlie think? She really liked the son of Hephaestus and she thought that he likes her too but would he still like her if he found out that she was the spy. Of course he wouldn't, she thought bitterly.

"I am the spy." She sang over and over again in her head until the words sank in

"I'm the spy." She thought bitterly in her head

"I'm the spy!" She screamed out loud than quickly clasped her hand over her mouth and hoped that no on heard her

"I'm the spy." She sobbed the words finally sinking in, her friends had died because of her, she didn't deserve to live, and she should go straight to the fields of punishment.

Silena sobbed and put her face in her hands and cried.

"Silena?" A familiar voice said

Silena whipped around and saw Charlie standing by the door.

"What's wrong?" he said concerned gathering up Silena in his arms

Silena shook her head and cried into his chest, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry." She repeated over and over again.

Beckendorf just remained silent and held her in his arms as she cried.

**I am sorry that this wasn't a real chapter but I realized that Silena was the spy and she had to tell them eventually or give them a nasty shock when they find out so I decided to write this to express how she must be feeling, but I kind of got carried away. I did this in a hurry so I think it sucks, hope you can forgive for messing up some of the greatest characters.**

**Please, please, please, please review or Apollo will show up in your house driving his**** red Maserati Spyder. (Actually that doesn't sound so bad)**

**P.S. Rachel and Nico are NOT going to get together…ever; it is more of a sibling friendship than anything in case you haven't noticed.**

**-WishingWell414**


	7. Important Author's Note

**Important Author's Note Please Read:**

**I am very sorry to say that I'm not going to be able to update my story until mid-August because I will be going on vacation with my friends and family, and unfortunately internet access is very hard to come by there. I apologize for this, and I hope my readers will not forget about this story by the time I am able to write again. Again I am very sorry and I can not wait to get back to this story.**

**-WishingWell414**


	8. I Become Supreme Lord of the Bathroom

**Disclaimer: I do not nor will I ever own Percy Jackson or any of the characters **

**Pretty please with a cherry on top, review.**

**Chapter 6**

"**I Become Supreme Lord of the Bathroom"**

"Where's Silena?" Clarisse asked

"In her room. I went to tell her that we were going to begin reading soon but she started to cry and she kept apologizing." Beckendorf said

"So she's not coming?" Travis asked bemused

"I don't think so."

"**I Become Supreme Lord of the Bathroom****,"** Travis read

"King Percy, the lord of toilets!" Nico said pretending to blow a trumpet

"Lady Nico queen of the fairies!" Percy said pretending to bow, while Nico shoot him his not so famous death glare

**Once I got over the fact that my Latin teacher was a horse,**

"Half-horse." Annabeth corrected

**we had a nice tour, though I was careful not to walk behind him.**

"Was he trotting? I hate it when he does that, dirt always ends up in my mouth." Grover asked

"Not exactly." Percy said

**I'd done pooper-scooper patrol in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade a few times, **

"It explains how easily you were able to clean up the horse poop in the ranch, you had experience." Nico muttered

**and, I'm sorry, I did not trust Chiron's back end the way I trusted his front.**

Everyone laughed loudly at this.

"You're thoughts are so amusing." Thalia laughed

**We passed the volleyball pit. Several of the campers nudged each other. One pointed to the minotaur horn I was carrying. Another said, "That's **_**him**_**."**

"Are you sure you weren't just hearing things?" Clarisse snorted

"Yeah Percy, not even in camp for a day and already causing commotion." Travis laughed

"Technically, he had already been there for a week." Connor pointed out

"Do you have to disagree with me on everything, this is just like the time you told everyone you were older?"

"I am older!" Connor roared

"Read." Annabeth said shoving the book into Travis's face

**Most of the campers were older than me. Their satyr friends were bigger than Grover, all of them trotting around in orange CAMP HALF-BLOOD T-shirts, with nothing else to cover their bare shaggy hindquarters.**

"They really should have specially designed pants to cover up a satyr's…hindquarters." Rachel said wincing at the last word

"Do satyrs have… male-?" Chris began

"Don't finish that sentence, I might throw up!" Clarisse said

"Well do they?" Nico asked Grover

"I'm not answering that." Grover huffed turning away

**I wasn't normally shy, but the way they stared at me made me uncomfortable. I felt like they were expecting me to do a flip or something.**

"That would have been so cool!" Nico said

"Yeah but instead all he did was trip and fall on his face." Chris snorted

**I looked back at the farmhouse. It was a lot bigger than I'd realized—four stories tall, sky blue with white trim, like an upscale seaside resort. I was checking out the brass eagle weather vane on top when something caught my eye, a shadow in the uppermost window of the attic gable. Something had moved the curtain, just for a second, and I got the distinct impression I was being watched.**

"Doesn't the oracle live up there?" Thalia said gulping

"Holy covered with peanut butter gods! The mummy has been spying on us!" Tyson said

"That's disturbing, I knew someone was spying on me that day when I had an itch on my bum." Grover muttered

"Maybe he's just being paranoid." Clarisse said though she really doubt it

**"What's up there?" I asked Chiron.**

"Oh just a scary old dead withered mummy who occasionally takes woods in the forest during a game of capture the flag and gives everyone a heart attack." Percy said answering his own question

**He looked where I was pointing, and his smile faded. "Just the attic."**

**"Somebody lives there?"**

**"No," he said with finality. "Not a single living thing." **

**I got the feeling he was being truthful. **

"He wasn't lying he was just twisting the truth which is what the Hermes cabin does the best." Beckendorf said jerking his head to Connor and Travis's direction

"I'll have you know that we lie!" Travis said which didn't help his situation

**But I was also sure something had moved that curtain.**

"Isn't the oracle suppose to be dead?" Rachel asked

"Yeah but it's not like we haven't seen the dead rise before." Percy said glancing at Nico

"I make the dead wake up the oracle is just a messed up peace of work." Nico said

**"Come along, Percy," Chiron said, his lighthearted tone now a little forced. "Lots to see."**

"Like what the showers and toilets?" Clarisse snorted

"No! Like the Pegasus stables, filled with poop." Grover said making everybody grimace

"The camp should really be cleaner." Rachel scowled

"Who's going to clean it, not the kids." Annabeth said answering her own question

**We walked through the strawberry fields, where campers were picking bushels of berries while a satyr played a tune on a reed pipe.**

"Why do satyrs have to play on a reed pipe, I mean why can't they play electric guitars or something?" Thalia said pretending to rock out of an electric guitar

"Because reed pipes are easy to carry around and it was the instrument that Pan used." Grover said growing sad at mentioning the god of the wild

**Chiron told me the camp grew a nice crop for export to New York restaurants and Mount Olympus. **

"So if I go to a New York restaurant, I'm eating the strawberries that_ I_ grew and I have to pay?" Connor said raising his eyebrows in disbelief

"You didn't grow anything and most New York restaurants don't even have strawberries." Annabeth said

**"It pays our expenses," he explained. "And the strawberries take almost no effort."**

"Notice the word almost." Thalia snorted

**He said Mr. D had this effect on fruit-bearing plants: they just went crazy when he was around. **

"Fruits go crazy for Mr. D." Tyson chuckled to himself causing people to stare at him

**It worked best with wine grapes, but Mr. D was restricted from growing those, so they grew strawberries instead.**

"Why do we have to grow strawberries, I mean why can't we grow Longan?" Travis said considering this

"Because no one knows what a _Longan_ is." Annabeth said

Travis gasped loudly "How can you not know what a Longan is? It's a tropical tree native to South and Southeast Asia, and is considered the cousin to the Lychee."

"What the hell is a lych-you know what never mind, just read." Annabeth sighed

**I watched the satyr playing his pipe. His music was causing lines of bugs to leave the strawberry patch in every direction, like refugees fleeing a fire.**

"That'd be useful." Rachel sighed bleary sighed blurry eyed "Imagine a bug less world."

**I wondered if Grover could work that kind of magic with music.**

Everyone burst out laughing at this except for Grover who looked offended.

"Excuse me; I'll have you know that I am getting better."

At this everyone laughed even harder

**I wondered if he was still inside the farmhouse, getting chewed out by Mr. D.**

Grover scoffed trying to make himself feel better "I was not getting_ chewed _out…I was sitting there sadly while Mr. D yelled insults at my face."

**"Grover won't get in too much trouble, will he?" I asked Chiron. "I mean ... he was a good protector. Really."**

Grover sniffed "Thanks, I needed that."

"You were a good protector." Percy grinned at Grover nudging him on the shoulder

**Chiron sighed. He shed his tweed jacket and draped it over his horses back like a saddle.**

Everyone in the room stopped listening to the story and tried to imagine that.

"How is that possible? So you're saying that he fully turned his upper body around, which might I add is where a horse's head is suppose to be and stretched like two feet to put his jacket on his back that could possibly fall off he started to trot?" Nico said bewildered

"Maybe I remembered it wrong." Percy said scratching his head

**"Grover has big dreams, Percy. Perhaps bigger than are reasonable.**

"My dreams were plenty reasonable and… I accomplished them." Grover said the last part sadly

**To reach his goal, he must first demonstrate great courage by succeeding as a keeper, finding a new camper and bringing him safely to Half-Blood Hill."**

"But he did that!" Thalia said sticking up for her old friend

"I wonder what would happen if you shave a satyr's legs?" Nico mused in the corner before turning to look at Grover with pleading eyes

"Bah! No way!" Grover huffed

**"But he did that!"**

"Why is it that Thalia and Percy are so alike?" Tyson wondered

**"I might agree with you," Chiron said. "But it is not my place to judge. Dionysus and the Council of Cloven Elders must decide. I'm afraid they might not see this assignment as a success. After all, Grover lost you in New York.**

"Yeah, after fish head here stupidly decided to ditch him." Thalia argued

"Yeah!" Percy said nodding his head "Wait a minute I am not a fish head!"

"I am deeply flattered but they do realize they're arguing with a book right?" Grover whispered to Annabeth who shrugged

"Who knows what's going on in there heads?"

**Then there's the unfortunate ... ah ... fate of your mother.**

Percy winced slightly at this that went unnoticed to everyone except for Annabeth who smiled reassuringly at him

**And the fact that Grover was unconscious when you dragged him over the property line. The council might question whether this shows any courage on Grover's part."**

"He is plenty courageous!" Annabeth argued, 'oh great I did it too', Annabeth thought

**I wanted to protest. None of what happened was Grover's fault. I also felt really, really guilty. If I hadn't given Grover the slip at the bus station, he might not have gotten in trouble.**

"I probably would have messed up anyway, and besides everything worked out in the end." Grover said the last part brightly

"You would not have messed up!" Annabeth yelled at Grover slapping him across the head

**"He'll get a second chance, won't he?" **

At this Thalia, Annabeth, Percy, and Grover winced.

"That was my second chance." Grover muttered starring at his hooves miserably 'Gods I really have to clean them' he thought as he stared at his hooves

**Chiron winced. "I'm afraid that **_**was **_**Grover's second chance, Percy. The council was not anxious to give him another, either, after what happened the first time, five years ago. Olympus knows, I advised him to wait longer before trying again. He's still so small for his age..."**

"I am not small… I'm a late developer!" Grover screamed offended

"You've grown since than." Annabeth said patting him on the back trying to reassure him

**"How old is he?"**

"Ooo here comes the shocker." Connor said excited

"If I remember correctly you fainted when you saw Chiron." Annabeth said smirking

'I did not! I merely lost consciousness for a few minutes and had to be woken up." Connor huffed

"Yeah, that's called fainting."

**"Oh, twenty-eight."**

**"What! And he's in sixth grade?"**

"I know its sad isn't it, having to repeat one grade over and over again." Grover sighed sadly remembering the happier times of running through the meadows filled with daisies and dandelions with his old grandma goat who would probably scold him for stuffing the dandelions up his nose, he sighed happily far, far away in his own imaginary world where everything was bright and colorful.

**"Satyrs mature half as fast as humans, Percy. Grover has been the equivalent of a middle school student for the past six years."**

"Six long miserable years." Grover sighed

"Okay we get it, middle school was miserable for you." Clarisse said

"You don't understand my pain, no one does. You have no idea how it was like being in a tiny classroom with no air conditioner wearing _jeans _over furry goat legs and listen to some boring teacher talking about the boat that turkeys were on, hoping for some half-blood to come along so you could finally have a chance at your life long dream!" Grover said his lower lip trembling

"Its okay, let it out, you're going to be fine." Annabeth said soothingly while rubbing Grover's back, while everyone else in the room shot Annabeth a "What the Hades is wrong with this goat?" look

**"That's horrible."**

"See someone knows my pain." Now there were even more looks

**"Quite," Chiron agreed. "At any rate, Grover is a late bloomer, even by satyr standards, and not yet very accomplished at woodland magic. Alas, he was anxious to pursue his dream. Perhaps now he will find some other career..."**

"Another career? How could I have given up on finding the mighty Pan, every satyr's dream?" Grover said in disbelief

"See this is like one of those life lessons that say don't give up and your dream will come true, but your dream probably won't be as amazing as you thought it would be because you're dream is dying." Percy said before realizing that he had said the wrong thing

Travis quickly realizing the tension in the room continued to read before anyone else could say anything

**"That's not fair," I said. "What happened the first time? Was it really so bad?"**

"Yeah it was." Someone in the room whispered causing everyone to wince

**Chiron looked away quickly. "Let's move along, shall we?"**

"That a good way to avoid any tricky subjects." Conner said in approval

**But I wasn't quite ready to let the subject drop. Something had occurred to me when Chiron talked about my mother's fate, as if he were intentionally avoiding the word **_**death.**_

"Why? Death is such a pretty word; I mean its 5 letters and everything." Nico said

"Yes death is a beautiful word, it means the end of life, and the fact that we have to go to hell, but it's a great word." Thalia said her voice dripping with sarcasm

"I agree." Nico said nodding obviously missing the sarcasm in her voice

**The beginnings of an idea—a tiny, hopeful fire—started forming in my mind.**

"I wonder how that expression started, did a guy just go 'Oh my mind is forming a tiny, hopeful fire' and suddenly it became something that appears in the mind of a 12 year old." Rachel wondered out loud

"Yeah speaking of expressions how did 'it's raining cats and dogs' start?" Chris wondered

"I don't know maybe it really rained animals back in the old days." Percy said

"None of us really care, can we just continue the story." Nico said slightly annoyed

**"Chiron," I said. "If the gods and Olympus and all that are real ..."**

**"Yes, child?"**

"Gods, Chiron talks like an old Chinese kung fu master, 'Yes, young pupil your training begins n-do not eat the dumplings!' Oops sorry had a vision of my Chinese food being eaten by a Hermes camper." Thalia muttered, while everyone stared at her like she was insane

"Is she a little…" Nico made a circular motion with his index finger around his temple

"Yup." Annabeth said cheerfully

"Can't believe you just figured that out." Percy said

**"Does that mean the Underworld is real, too?"**

"Of course it's real, where do you think Mc Creepy comes from?" Clarisse snorted

"Well Clarisse in case you don't know , I, Nico Di Angelo came from the stomach of a women, and how I got there was so kindly explained to me by my beloved cousin and if you don't know what I'm talking about then you and Chris are going to have problems in the future."

At this Clarisse turned a bright red color, making everyone in the room hide there laughs.

**Chiron's expression darkened.**

**"Yes, child." He paused, as if choosing his words care fully. "There is a place where spirits go after death.**

"Yeah if there wasn't than people would either have to be immortal and than the gods wouldn't be anything special, so than we wouldn't be anything special which is to horrifying to even think about or they would just become ghost roaming around earth and that's to horrifying for anyone to think about." Travis said

"That made no sense." Percy said surprising everyone

"Coming from you? The king of not making sense?"

"I like to think it's one of my greatest strengths." Percy said puffing his chest out

**But for now ... until we know more ... I would urge you to put that out of your mind."**

**"What do you mean, 'until we know more'?"**

"He means until we know more." Connor said looking at Percy like he was stupid

"I know what he- it was an-I really hate pink cereal-you know what never mind" Percy sighed for what seemed like the 28th time today, yes he had been counting

**"Come, Percy. Let's see the woods."**

"Ah, nature the beauty of life. Did you see Juniper?" Grover asked after drooling for a while

"I don't think so." Percy said choosing his words carefully afraid to offend Grover when he was on one of his nature is beautiful rampages

**As we got closer, I realized how huge the forest was. It took up at least a quarter of the valley, with trees so tall and thick, you could imagine nobody had been in there since the Native Americans.**

"What are you talking about? We're in there almost everyday! Thought most of the time we're running and screaming for help… but still." Chris said before wincing as if remembering a painful memory

**Chiron said, "The woods are stocked, if you care to try your luck, but go armed."**

"Yeah, there was only one guy in the history of camp half-blood who was brave enough to go in unarmed." Beckendorf said before sniffing sadly

"What happened to him?" Annabeth asked not knowing the story

"The camp found him a month later, all that was left of him was a pile of bones all the flesh and the meat chewed right off, along with his head cut off perfectly from his body, his eyes wide in shock, his mouth hanging open with the thing that did it to him chewing on his rotting head." Beckendorf said lowering his voice and looking at his shoes

"Was it just me or did the room just get colder?" Rachel squeaked out

"Sorry that's me, tends to happen when I get… nervous." Nico muttered

"You mean scared?" Thalia asked smirking and just like that the room was back to a bunch of friends hanging out against their will

**"Stocked with what?" I asked. "Armed with what?"**

"Stocked with monsters, armed with weapons." Percy said answering his own questions

**"You'll see. Capture the flag is Friday night. Do you have your own sword and shield?"**

At this Percy sighed sadly remembering his shield was lost while battling Kampe.

"You just arrived at Camp Half-blood not knowing that the Greek gods even existed, why the heck would you have a sword and shield is Chiron out of his mind? Why would he ask you that?" Annabeth said outraged, while everyone shrunk into their chairs afraid to be caught in Annabeth's wrath while she screamed and muttered to herself about how the old centaur was losing it

**"My own—?"**

**"No," Chiron said. "I don't suppose you do. I think a size five will do. I'll visit the armory later.**

Most of the guys had to stifle their laughs at this

"Isn't size 5 the smallest size we have and isn't it for toddlers?" Connor asked barely managing to stop himself from laughing

"I was small when I was 12!" Percy whined

"You still are, shrimp." Thalia snorted

**I wanted to ask what kind of summer camp had an armory,**

"Our summer camp." Annabeth said proudly

**but there was too much else to think about, so the tour continued. We saw the archery range, the canoeing lake, the stables (which Chiron didn't seem to like very much),**

"Why? All his friends are in there." Travis said

"Some of the Pegasus can be pretty mean to Chiron." Percy said

"What do they say?" Tyson asked unable to think that the "ponies" would be able to say anything bad

"I'm not allowed to use those words unless I'm about to be eaten by a big monster." Percy said innocently

**the javelin range, the sing-along amphitheater,**

**Most of the kids in the room groaned at this.**

"I love sing-alongs." Rachel said

"I did too but if I have to hear one more song about how the Minotaur loss his underwear in a bullfight I will scream."

"No the worst is the one about the empousai who fell in love with that mortal, then the empousai left and a hellhound fell in love with the mortal. Than the empousai came back and they got married and than they had that half empousai, half mortal freak, the mortal was changed into an empousai and than they lived happily ever after." Clarisse said in disgusts **(Sorry I know that was random but just felt like putting it in)**

"Uh, I hate that song too." Annabeth said

**and the arena where Chiron said they held sword and spear fights.**

**"Sword and spear fights?" I asked.**

**"Cabin challenges and all that," he explained. "Not lethal. Usually.**

"Usually? Every time we play at least 10 people end up in the infirmary screaming for there mama!" Chris said raising an eyebrow

"Half of them are in the infirmary because of your girlfriend." Connor said snickerin**g **

**Oh, yes, and there's the mess hall."**

"The best mess hall in the history of mess halls!" Travis screamed

"What's so great about it?" Annabeth asked amusement in her eyes

"Uh..."

**Chiron pointed to an outdoor pavilion framed in white Grecian columns on a hill overlooking the sea.**

"We have a view, yeah that's it, we have a view that's why it's the best mess hall ever!" Travis grinned excited

"But the mess hall is always freakishly hot in the summer and when it rains we're all drenched." Annabeth argued

"But we have weather control!" Travis screamed

"Yeah but Mr. D likes to torture us by making it rain or extremely hot when we eat!" Annabeth debated

"But the…you just have to win don't you."

**There were a dozen stone picnic tables. No roof. No walls.**

**"What do you do when it rains?" I asked.**

**Chiron looked at me as if I'd gone a little weird.**

"More than a little weird." Thalia laughed

**"We still have to eat, don't we?" I decided to drop the subject.**

**Finally, he showed me the cabins. There were twelve of them, nestled in the woods by the lake. They were arranged in a U,**

"Why, are they arranged in a U why couldn't they be arranged in a Y, I like Y's, nice letter." Thalia commented

**with two at the base and five in a row on either side. And they were without doubt the most bizarre collection of buildings I'd ever seen.**

"Excuse me but the finest architecture invented the cabins." Annabeth said offended

"I didn't mean it like that I meant it like…beautifully bizarre?" Percy said his response coming out like a question but apparently it was good enough for Annabeth

**Except for the fact that each had a large brass number above the door (odds on the left side, evens on the right), they looked absolutely nothing alike. Number nine had smokestacks, like a tiny factory.**

"My cabin." Beckendorf said straightening up

**Number four had tomato vines on the walls and a roof made out of real grass. **

"Katie's cabin." Travis sighed quietly

**Seven seemed to be made of solid gold, which gleamed so much in the sunlight it was almost impossible to look at. **

"Apollo cabin." Thalia said in distaste

"Okay we get it every cabin belongs to someone don't announce it, keep it in your head or we're going to be here forever." Nico said

"well, you're the one who's talking half the time." Thalia sneered

"Only after you people talk!"

**They all faced a commons area about the size of a soccer field, dotted with Greek statues, fountains, flower beds, and a couple of basketball hoops (which were more my speed).**

**In the center of the field was a huge stone-lined firepit. Even though it was a warm afternoon, the hearth smoldered. A girl about nine years old was tending the flames, poking the coals with a stick.**

"Hest-"Nico started before being silenced by a look from Thalia

"Only talk after we talk, huh?"

"Who's Hest?" Percy asked

"Hestia goddess of hearth." Nico answered

**The pair of cabins at the head of the field, numbers one and two, looked like his-and-hers mausoleums, big white marble boxes with heavy columns in front. Cabin one was the biggest and bulkiest of the twelve. Its polished bronze doors shimmered like a hologram, so that from different angles lightning bolts seemed to streak across them.**

"My cabin which is obviously the most awesome." Thalia said smirking

"I agree with you and not just because you have a big daddy standing behind you ready to strike us with lightning." Connor said nodding in agreement

"You do realize we're in the middle of no where and you won't get shocked if you disagree with her right?" Travis whispered in his brother's ear

"Oh… than your cabin sucks." Connor said to Thalia who smacked him on the shoulder

**Cabin two was more graceful somehow, with slimmer columns garlanded with pomegranates and flowers. The walls were carved with images of peacocks.**

"I hate Hera." Annabeth snarled

**"Zeus and Hera?" I guessed.**

**"Correct," Chiron said.**

"Enjoy it Percy that's the only time in your life your going to be right." Thalia said seriously

"I've been right plenty of times before!" Percy huffed

**"Their cabins look empty."**

"That's because they are, seaweed brain."

**"Several of the cabins are. That's true. No one ever stays in one or two."**

**Okay. So each cabin had a different god, like a mascot.**

"No more like a patron, you already have enough gods pissed with you don't need to add more with that comment." Grover said

**Twelve cabins for the twelve Olympians. But why would some be empty?**

"Because they don't have kids, idiot!" Clarisse said

"I'm being corrected by Clarisse, pigs are officially flying." Percy muttered

**I stopped in front of the first cabin on the left, cabin three.**

"My cabin." Percy sighed happily

**It wasn't high and mighty like cabin one, but long and low and solid. The outer walls were of rough gray stone studded with pieces of seashell and coral, as if the slabs had been hewn straight from the bottom of the ocean floor. I peeked inside the open doorway and Chiron said, "Oh, I wouldn't do that!"**

"Wow it's like you knew you belonged in your cabin." Rachel said in surprise

"Either that or he felt like pissing off the gods and this way the quickest and easiest way to do it." Nico snorted

"Actually I just thought it was pretty and wanted to see the inside." Percy muttered "But your reasons are good to!"

**Before he could pull me back, I caught the salty scent of the interior, like the wind on the shore at Montauk. The interior walls glowed like abalone.**

"Abalones glow?" Grover asked

"Yes as a matter of fact they do." Percy said

"From the right lighting everything glows." Annabeth said

**There were six empty bunk beds with silk sheets turned down. But there was no sign anyone had ever slept there. The place felt so sad and lonely, I was glad when Chiron put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Come along, Percy."**

"Oh so you were glad to leave your cabin?" Thalia asked raising an eyebrow

"No it just looked empty but now that I live in it-"

"It looks like a bunch of college kids had a party in it." Annabeth finished for Percy

"Yeah so it no longer looks sad and lonely." Percy said

**Most of the other cabins were crowded with campers.**

**Number five**

"The best cabin there is!" Clarisse screamed making everybody jump 3 feet into the air.

**was bright red—a real nasty paint job, as if the color had been splashed on with buckets and fists.**

"Did it my self as a matter of fact." Clarisse said proudly

"Explains everything." Nico muttered to himself

"Yeah they repainted the cabin a year before Percy came but they thought brushes were 'a waste of time' so they decided to fist paint." Annabeth said

**The roof was lined with barbed wire. A stuffed wild boar's head hung over the doorway, and its eyes seemed to follow me. **

"The eyes are following you." Clarisse muttered

"What?"

"Nothing."

**Inside I could see a bunch of mean-looking kids, both girls and boys, arm wrestling and arguing with each other while rock music blared. The loudest was a girl maybe thirteen or fourteen. She wore a size XXXL CAMP HALF-BLOOD T-shirt under a camouflage jacket. She zeroed in on me and gave me an evil sneer. She reminded me of Nancy Bobofit, though the camper girl was much bigger and tougher looking, and her hair was long and stringy, and brown instead of red.**

Percy inwardly winced at the description, 'I'm going to die' he thought.

"I look nothing like Bobofit!" Clarisse roared

"I know you're much uglier." Percy said before wincing

"You should start running now." Chris whispered in his ear

"As much as I would like to see Percy get beat up we have to finish the book." Annabeth said

Clarisse snarled before sitting back down

**I kept walking, trying to stay clear of Chiron's hooves. "We haven't seen any other centaurs," I observed.**

**"No," said Chiron sadly. "My kinsmen are a wild and barbaric folk,**

"What is he talking about the Party Ponies are awesome!" Percy screamed with agreement from anyone who's met the party ponies

**I'm afraid. You might encounter them in the wilderness, or at major sporting events. But you won't see any here."**

**"You said your name was Chiron. Are you really ..."**

"A Latin teacher, no he isn't." Nico said

**He smiled down at me. **_**"The **_**Chiron from the stories? Trainer of Hercules and all that? Yes, Percy, I am."**

"I thought Hercules trainer was Phillip." Travis asked

"No that was just Disney's messed up version and if you pay any attention you'd know that. I really hate Disney, it bad enough they made a half-blood a son of Hera but they have to give all the credit of training Hercules to some satyr named Phillip." Annabeth hissed

"Hercules was a world class jerk so its better people don't know who trained him." Percy said

**"But, shouldn't you be dead?"**

"You are the most tactless person I know." Annabeth said

**Chiron paused, as if the question intrigued him. "I honestly don't know about **_**should **_**be. The truth is, I **_**can't **_**be dead. You see, eons ago the gods granted my wish. I could continue the work I loved. I could be a teacher of heroes as long as humanity needed me. I gained much from that wish ... and I gave up much. But I'm still here, so I can only assume I'm still needed."**

"He is." Annabeth said

"What did he give up?" Nico wondered

**I thought about being a teacher for three thousand years. It wouldn't have made my Top Ten Things to wish for list.**

**"Doesn't it ever get boring?"**

**"No, no," he said. "Horribly depressing, at times, but never boring."**

**"Why depressing?"**

"Because most of the half-bloods end up dying." Annabeth said

**Chiron seemed to turn hard of hearing again**

"Yeah he seems to only hear the things he wants to hear, a skill I haven't mastered yet." Rachel said

**"Oh, look," he said. "Annabeth is waiting for us."**

"As I said before his changing subject skills are great but the 'Oh look' in front of it made it very obvious." Travis instructed the book as if it were a student

**The blond girl**

"The blond girl is that how you address the future love of your life." Thalia joked causing Percy and Annabeth to turn a color that should have been impossible

**I'd met at the Big House was reading a book in front of the last cabin on the left, number eleven.**

"Hermes!" The Stolls and Chris cheered

"Why is it that you're always reading?" Percy sighed

**When we reached her, she looked me over critically, like she was still thinking about how much I drooled.**

"I was not! I was thinking 'there is no way this boy could have killed the Minotaur' and I was thinking about how weak your left side looked." Annabeth told Percy

"Well what do you think of me now?" Percy asked innocently

"I can't believe this idiot is my best friend."

"Hey!" Grover pouted

"One of my best friends."

**I tried to see what she was reading, but I couldn't make out the title. I thought my dyslexia was acting up. Then I realized the title wasn't even English. The letters looked Greek to me. I mean, literally Greek.**

"Worst pun ever." The Stolls said "We are disappointed in you Percy."

"Uh… sorry?"

**There were pictures of temples and statues and different kinds of columns, like those in an architecture book.**

"It was an architecture book." Annabeth said rolling her eyes

**"Annabeth," Chiron said, "I have masters' archery class at noon.**

"A class you will never join." Thalia said looking at Percy

**Would you take Percy from here?"**

"Like she would say no to get a chance to spend time with the chosen one!" Connor said fluttering his eyelashes at Annabeth

"You're right I always wanted to meet Harry Potter, especially since we're in a room that acts exactly like the room of requirement." Annabeth said smirking at the confused look in Connor's eyes

**"Yes, sir."**

**"Cabin eleven," Chiron told me, gesturing toward the doorway. "Make yourself at home."**

"Please don't, the last time Chiron told that to someone they decided to sleep naked." Connor said in disgust

**Out of all the cabins, eleven looked the most like a regular old summer camp cabin, with the emphasis on **_**old. **_

"Hey! Our cabin is a little worn out but it's still the most fun cabin in camp." Travis pointed out

**The threshold was worn down, the brown paint peeling. Over the doorway was one of those doctor's symbols, a winged pole with two snakes wrapped around it. What did they call it...?**

"A caduceus." Annabeth and the Hermes kids replied

**A caduceus.**

**Inside, it was packed with people, both boys and girls, way more than the number of bunk beds. Sleeping bags were spread all over on the floor. It looked like a gym where the Red Cross had set up an evacuation center.**

"They really should have another cabin made for the undetermined kids." Rachel scowled

"The gods should really claim there kids." Percy muttered and everyone nodded in agreement

"We can talk about demi-god rights later but can we just read for now." Nico, the most insensitive person, sighed exasperated

**Chiron didn't go in. The door was too low for him. But when the campers saw him they all stood and bowed respectfully.**

"Why must we bow, why can't we just say what up dog? It would save us so much time." Connor being the king of stupid questions asked

"Because one, it's unrespectable, two, Chiron doesn't like dogs, and three, no one says 'What's up dog anymore'!" Annabeth told Connor

**"Well, then," Chiron said. "Good luck, Percy. I'll see you at dinner."**

"I'm kind of hungry." Tyson muttered

"I want to ask for pizza but I'm afraid it might fall on my head like everything else." Percy said

"We'll eat after this." Annabeth sighed, which was followed by cheers

**He galloped away toward the archery range.**

**I stood in the doorway, looking at the kids. They weren't bowing anymore. They were staring at me, sizing me up. I knew this routine. I'd gone through it at enough schools.**

**"Well?" Annabeth prompted. "Go on."**

"See even at the age of 12 you listened to everything Annabeth said." Connor said

"Shh." Annabeth said shushing Connor "This is my favorite part."

**So naturally I tripped coming in the door and made a total fool of myself.**

Everyone in the room started to laugh at this except for Percy who sat there bitterly.

**There were some snickers from the campers, but none of them said anything.**

**Annabeth announced, "Percy Jackson, meet cabin eleven."**

"'Cabin eleven is not happy to meet you.' An extremely handsome and good looking boy named Travis said" Travis read

"Wait a minute that is not in the book!" Percy said grabbing the book from Travis' hands

"Sorry." Travis muttered before taking the book back

**"Regular or undetermined?" somebody asked.**

**I didn't know what to say, but Annabeth said, "Undetermined."**

**Everybody groaned.**

"Not everybody, I'm sure some of the few adorable and innocent souls in the room such as myself did not groan." Connor said

"Sometimes your arrogance scares even me." Travis said to his brother

**A guy who was a little older than the rest came forward.**

The mood suddenly seemed to darkened.

"Luke." Someone growled

**"Now, now, campers. That's what we're here for. Welcome, Percy. You can have that spot on the floor, right over there."**

"Look at him being so nice. Lies all of them!" Thalia snarled

**The guy was about nineteen, and he looked pretty cool. He was tall and muscular, with short-cropped sandy hair and a friendly smile. He wore an orange tank top, cutoffs, sandals, and a leather necklace with five different-colored clay beads. The only thing unsettling about his appearance was a thick white scar that ran from just beneath his right eye to his jaw, like an old knife slash.**

Travis' usually loud and annoying voice was surprisingly quiet as he read this. Everyone in the room looked like they just saw their friend die before their eyes.

**"This is Luke," Annabeth said, and her voice sounded different somehow. I glanced over and could've sworn she was blushing.**

"Aww wittle Annie has a crush on Hermes son, who is much older than her." Connor said in his baby voice successfully breaking the tension in the room

"I had a crush on no one!" Annabeth said calmly

"Aww she's blushing!" Connor gushed causing everyone to laugh and just like that the tension in the room vanished

**She saw me looking, and her expression hardened again. **

"Are you sure she didn't just see your ugly face and even the resemblance of Hermes couldn't save her." Connor said to Percy, causing everybody to laugh

"Okay it was funny at first but now you can shut up." Percy said to Connor even though he was happy that Connor was here to ease the tension, as painless as possible that was Connor's plan

**"He's your counselor for now."**

**"For now?" I asked.**

**"You're undetermined," Luke explained patiently. "They don't know what cabin to put you in, so you're here. Cabin eleven takes all newcomers, all visitors. Naturally, we would. Hermes, our patron, is the god of travelers."**

"HERMES was the great Olympian God of animal husbandry, roads, travel, hospitality, heralds, diplomacy, trade, thievery, language, writing, persuasion, cunning wiles, athletic contests, gymnasiums, astronomy, and astrology." Connor said adding on to Luke's sentence

**I looked at the tiny section of floor they'd given me. I had nothing to put there to mark it as my own, no luggage, no clothes, no sleeping bag. Just the Minotaur's horn. I thought about setting that down, but then I remembered that Hermes was also the god of thieves.**

"Ah, smart boy." The sons of Hermes said

"Wow never thought I would hear anybody say that to Percy before." Thalia said shocked

**I looked around at the campers' faces, some sullen and suspicious, some grinning stupidly, some eyeing me as if they were waiting for a chance to pick my pockets.**

"Those are the lovely children of Hermes in case you haven't guessed yet." Nico said snickering at the word lovely

"I have other words to describe them and trust me it's not lovely." Percy chuckled

**"How long will I be here?" I asked.**

**"Good question," Luke said. "Until you're determined."**

**"How long will that take?"**

**The campers all laughed.**

Everyone frowned at this, the gods should really claim their kids, half the reason they're in this mess was because the gods ignored their kids.

**"Come on," Annabeth told me. "I'll show you the volleyball court."**

**"I've already seen it."**

"You can't take a hint can you?" Chris laughed

'No he can't.' Annabeth thought

**"Come on." She grabbed my wrist and dragged me outside. I could hear the kids of cabin eleven laughing behind me.**

**When we were a few feet away, Annabeth said, "Jackson, you have to do better than that."**

**"What?"**

**She rolled her eyes and mumbled under her breath, "I can't believe I thought you were the one."**

"Oh but he is the one." Connor fluttered his eyelashes at Annabeth before getting hit with a pillow

"Anyone else have something to say?" Annabeth challenged holding up the pillow threateningly

**"What's your problem?" I was getting angry now. "All I know is, I kill some bull guy—"**

**"Don't talk like that!" Annabeth told me. "You know how many kids at this camp wish they'd had your chance?"**

**"To get killed?"**

"Yes because every half-blood wishes to be killed." Thalia said sarcastically

"I was being sarcastic."

"So was I." Thalia smirked at Percy

**"To fight the Minotaur! What do you think we train for?"**

**I shook my head. "Look, if the thing I fought really was **_**the **_**Minotaur, the same one in the stories ..."**

**"Yes."**

**"Then there's only one."**

**"Yes."**

**"And he died, like, a gajillion years ago, right? Theseus killed him in the labyrinth. So ..."**

"Gajillion isn't even a real word." Thalia scoffed "Is it?" she said unsurely looking at Annabeth

"It's not recognized in dictionaries but its slang."

**"Monsters don't die, Percy. They can be killed. But they don't die."**

"Doesn't kill and die have the same meaning?" Rachel asked

"No." Annabeth said and that was the end of that conversation

**"Oh, thanks. That clears it up."**

**"They don't have souls, like you and me. You can dispel them for a while, maybe even for a whole lifetime if you're lucky. But they are primal forces. Chiron calls them arche types. Eventually, they re-form."**

**I thought about Mrs. Dodds. "You mean if I killed one, accidentally, with a sword—"**

"How do you accidentally kill a monster, did you trip while charging at it and your sword just went through its body by accident?" Thalia snorted

"No you kill a monster accidentally by thinking it was your teacher until it turns into a vicious monster and tries to kill me which isn't new but the monster part is and than my other teacher throws me a sword which I hold up and it just happens to run the monster through." Percy said

**"The Fur ... I mean, your math teacher. That's right. She's still out there. You just made her very, very mad."**

"Yeah I'd imagine getting run through with a sword by a half-blood with no training would make a fury pretty mad." Grover said nervously as if expecting a fury to pop up and drag him to hell, literally

**"How did you know about Mrs. Dodds?"**

**"You talk in your sleep."**

**"You almost called her something. A Fury? They're Hades' torturers, right?"**

**Annabeth glanced nervously at the ground, as if she expected it to open up and swallow her.**

"No I was staring at the ground expecting it to open up and swallow _you_." Annabeth said without a hint of humor in her voice

"**You shouldn't call them by name, even here. We call them the Kindly Ones, if we have to speak of them at all."**

"The furies have never done one kind thing in their lives so why would they be called the Kindly Ones?" Nico asked

"Because they're considered kind when they don't kill random people?" Rachel guessed

**"Look, is there anything we **_**can **_**say without it thundering?"**

"Nope, unless you're saying nice things about gods-wait no it'll still thunder because than some other god will be offended, so yes you can't say anything without it thundering." Thalia said brightly

**I sounded whiny, even to myself, but right then I didn't care. "Why do I have to stay in cabin eleven, anyway?**

"You don't have to stay in Cabin Eleven you're a guest and if you don't enjoy Cabin Eleven's hospitality you might as well leave." Travis scoffed

"But I already have my own cabin."

"Well you're not invited back to Cabin Eleven!" Travis said before crossing his arms over his chest

**Why is everybody so crowded together? There are plenty of empty bunks right over there."**

"You didn't understand any of what Annabeth said did you?" Grover sighed

"No." Percy said blushing

**I pointed to the first few cabins, and Annabeth turned pale. "You don't just choose a cabin, Percy. It depends on who your parents are. Or ... your parent."**

**She stared at me, waiting for me to get it.**

"You should just explain it to him." Nico told Annabeth "He's a bit slow."

"I know that now." Annabeth laughed

**"My mom is Sally Jackson," I said. "She works at the candy store in Grand Central Station. At least, she used to."**

**"I'm sorry about your mom, Percy. But that's not what I mean. I'm talking about your other parent. Your dad."**

**"He's dead. I never knew him."**

**Annabeth sighed. Clearly, she'd had this conversation before with other kids.**

**"Your father's not dead, Percy."**

**"How can you say that? You know him?"**

"Well not personally but I know of him." Annabeth smiled

**"No, of course not."**

**"Then how can you say—"**

"Because she's Annabeth and she knows all!" Connor screamed jumping on his chair and striking a super man pose

**"Because I know **_**you.**_ **You wouldn't be here if you weren't one of us."**

**"You don't know anything about me."**

"I bet she's gonna name a bunch of facts about him that are all true and he's gonna stand there shocked and embarrassed." Travis said looking around seeing if anybody would take the bet, no one did

"Why won't anyone take the bet!" He whined

"Because you're holding the book and we don't even need the book to know what's going to happen." Beckendorf laughed, causing Travis to pout

**"No?" She raised an eyebrow. "I bet you moved around from school to school. I bet you were kicked out of a lot of them."**

**"How—"**

**"Diagnosed with dyslexia. Probably ADHD, too."**

**I tried to swallow my embarrassment. "What does that have to do with anything?"**

"See told you." Travis said causing everybody to roll their eyes

"Do all half-bloods have dyslexia and ADHD?" Rachel asked

"Yeah."

**"Taken together, it's almost a sure sign. The letters float off the page when you read, right?**

"Actually the letters kind of dance off the page when I read now that I think about it." Percy said

"Uh, I hate it when they do the tango." Thalia made a face while she said this as if she could literally see dancing letters

**That's because your mind is hardwired for ancient Greek.**

**And the ADHD—you're impulsive, can't sit still in the classroom. That's your battle field reflexes. In a real fight, they'd keep you alive. As for the attention problems, that's because you see too much, Percy, not too little. Your senses are better than a regular mortal's. Of course the teachers want you medicated. Most of them are monsters. They don't want you seeing them for what they are."**

**"You sound like ... you went through the same thing?"**

"That's because I did, Seaweed Brain." Annabeth shrugged

**"Most of the kids here did. If you weren't like us, you couldn't have survived the Minotaur, much less the ambrosia and nectar."**

**"Ambrosia and nectar."**

**"The food and drink we were giving you to make you better. That stuff would've killed a normal kid. It would've turned your blood to fire and your bones to sand and you'd be dead. **

"Why is it that everything turns our blood into fire and bones to sand?" Grover asked

"I don't know it just seems appropriate." Percy mumbled

**Face it. You're a half-blood."**

**A half-blood.**

**I was reeling with so many questions I didn't know where to start.**

**Then a husky voice yelled, "Well! A newbie!"**

"I have a feeling I know who's voice that is." Percy laughed

**I looked over. The big girl from the ugly red cabin was sauntering toward us.**

"My cabin is not ugly, it's just… special!" Clarisse yelled

"Just like you head." Annabeth smiled blandly

**She had three other girls behind her, all big and ugly and mean looking like her, all wearing camo jackets.**

**"Clarisse," Annabeth sighed. "Why don't you go polish your spear or something?"**

"The son of Poseidon broke it." Clarisse snarled

**"Sure, Miss Princess," the big girl said. "So I can run you through with it Friday night."**

"Ha! I think you're a little confused about who'll be running who through with it." Annabeth laughed

"You wanna make that a challenge princess?" Clarisse growled

"Princess. That is the worst insult ever." Percy said coming to Annabeth's aid

"Calm down." Chris said to Clarisse

_**''Erre es korakas!"**_ **Annabeth said, which I somehow under stood was Greek for 'Go to the crows!' though I had a feeling it was a worse curse than it sounded. **

"Yeah... Go to the crows…that's what I said." Annabeth muttered causing everybody to stare at her

**"You don't stand a chance."**

**"We'll pulverize you," Clarisse said, but her eye twitched. Perhaps she wasn't sure she could follow through on the threat. **

"Come here sea brat so I can show you just how I follow through with my threats!" Clarisse yelled moving towards Percy but was stopped by Chris

"Chris just saved your life twice today." Grover whispered in Percy's ear

"I don't know I'm pretty sure I could have taken her." Percy said cockily

**She turned toward me. "Who's this little runt?"**

**"Percy Jackson," Annabeth said, "meet Clarisse, Daughter of Ares."**

**I blinked. "Like ... the war god?"**

**Clarisse sneered. "You got a problem with that?"**

**"No," I said, recovering my wits. "It explains the bad smell."**

Everyone in the room had to hide their laughs at this.

Connor being the idiot he was said "Ooo, burn!" Clarisse responded by grabbing Connor's neck

"Help!" He shrieked

"Sorry can't help you if you set yourself up." Chris chuckled

"That's gotta hurt." Travis winced

"The love you have for your brother amazes me." Annabeth said to Travis

**Clarisse growled. "We got an initiation ceremony for newbies, Prissy."**

**"Percy."**

**"Whatever. Come on, I'll show you."**

**"Clarisse—" Annabeth tried to say.**

**"Stay out of it, wise girl."**

"Is that where you got wise girl from, Clarisse?" Thalia asked

"Yeah."

"How unromantic."

**Annabeth looked pained, but she did stay out of it,** **and I didn't really want her help. I was the new kid. I had to earn my own rep.**

"Boys and there stupid pride." Rachel said

**I handed Annabeth my minotaur horn**

"You should have just kept it at least you have something sharp to stab her with-I mean to give her as a present." Nico began but quickly stopped after he saw the glare Clarisse was giving him

**and got ready to fight, but before I knew it, Clarisse had me by the neck and was dragging me toward a cinder-block building that I knew immediately was the bathroom.**

**I was kicking and punching. I'd been in plenty of fights before, but this big girl Clarisse had hands like iron. She dragged me into the girls' bathroom. There was a line of toilets on one side and a line of shower stalls down the other. It smelled just like any public bathroom, and I was thinking—as much as I **_**could **_**think with Clarisse ripping my hair out—that if this place belonged to the gods, they should've been able to afford classier johns.**

"Please tell me you weren't actually thinking that." Annabeth said closing her eyes and laughing

"I would say I wasn't actually thinking that but than I'd be lying."

**Clarisse's friends were all laughing, and I was trying to find the strength I'd used to fight the Minotaur, but it just wasn't there.**

**"Like he's 'Big Three' material," Clarisse said as she pushed me toward one of the toilets. "Yeah, right. Minotaur probably fell over laughing, he was so stupid looking."**

**Her friends snickered.**

**Annabeth stood in the corner, watching through her fingers.**

**Clarisse bent me over on my knees and started pushing my head toward the toilet bowl. It reeked like rusted pipes and, well, like what goes into toilets.**

"Why do your descriptions have to be so…" Rachel made a disgusted face and puffed out her cheeks as if she were about to vomit

"Eeww." Tyson said

**I strained to keep my head up. I was looking at the scummy water, thinking, I will not go into that. I won't.**

**Then something happened. I felt a tug in the pit of my stomach.**

"Please tell me you didn't throw up." Rachel said disgusted

"Not exactly." Percy chuckled

**I heard the plumbing rumble, the pipes shudder. Clarisse's grip on my hair loosened. Water shot out of the toilet, making an arc straight over my head, and the next thing I knew, I was sprawled on the bathroom tiles with Clarisse screaming behind me.**

Everybody was laughing except for Clarisse by now.

**I turned just as water blasted out of the toilet again, hitting Clarisse straight in the face so hard it pushed her down onto her butt.**

"Oh knock out!" Travis screamed causing more laughs

"If Clarisse didn't just punch me in the gut this would be even more amusing." Travis gasped from the ground

**The water stayed on her like the spray from a fire hose, pushing her backward into a shower stall.**

"At least you did land in a toilet." Chris said to Clarisse which didn't make her feel any better

**She struggled, gasping, and her friends started coming toward her.**

**But then the other toilets exploded, too, and six more streams of toilet water blasted them back. The showers acted up, too, and together all the fixtures sprayed the camouflage girls right out of the bathroom, spinning them around like pieces of garbage being washed away.**

By now Travis had to stop reading because no one was listening because they were all laughing to hard and personally his lungs hurt from trying to read and laugh at the same time.

**As soon as they were out the door, I felt the tug in my gut lessen, and the water shut off as quickly as it had started.**

**The entire bathroom was flooded. Annabeth hadn't been spared.**

**She was dripping wet, but she hadn't been pushed out the door. She was standing in exactly the same place, staring at me in shock.**

The laughter had now toned down slightly and had turn into occasional giggles.

**I looked down and realized I was sitting in the only dry spot in the whole room. There was a circle of dry floor around me. I didn't have one drop of water on my clothes. Nothing.**

"And you still didn't realize your godly parent was Poseidon?" Nico asked

"No?"

**I stood up, my legs shaky.**

**Annabeth said, "How did you ..."**

"It was his seahorse senses!" Nico screamed

**"I don't know."**

**We walked to the door. Outside, Clarisse and her friends were sprawled in the mud, and a bunch of other campers had gathered around to gawk. Clarisse's hair was flattened across her face. Her camouflage jacket was sopping and she smelled like sewage. **

"That'll happen when you get splashed with toilet water." Thalia laughed

"Do you know how many showers I had to take after that?" Clarisse yelled at Percy

**She gave me a look of absolute hatred. "You are dead, new boy. You are totally dead."**

"Ooo, scary." Percy mocked

**I probably should have let it go, but I said, "You want to gargle with toilet water again, Clarisse? Close your mouth."**

"You're right you should have let it go." Clarisse growled

**Her friends had to hold her back. They dragged her toward cabin five, while the other campers made way to avoid her flailing feet.**

**Annabeth stared at me. I couldn't tell whether she was just grossed out or angry at me for dousing her.**

**"What?" I demanded. "What are you thinking?"**

**"I'm thinking," she said, "that I want you on my team for capture the flag."**

"And so his legacy begin, young Percy became a hero and-"Travis started

"That is not part of the book." Percy said with raised eyebrows

"I know but my version is so much better and it's only 3 sentences instead of a book thicker than my hand."

"Well end of the chapter." Travis said tossing the book to Clarisse

"But what about the food!" the "Ghost King" whined

"Okay we'll eat first." Annabeth sighed

"Peanut butter." Tyson said starry eyed

"I'll go check if Silena wants to eat." Beckendorf said

**Authors Note: I'm back! My vacation was great if anyone was wondering and thank you so, so, so, so much to all those people that have reviewed, suggestions are always welcome. And please review all you have to do is press that really attractive looking blue button that says "Review This Chapter" and if you don't beware of the "Ghost King".**

**I have a poll on my profile so please vote which characters you want me to add to my story and I know I originally said I would only add 2 characters but now I've decided to add 6 so please vote! I've also added more choices so please vote!**

**Remember reviews make me happy and a happy me equals faster updates.**

**-WishingWell414**


	9. My Dinner goes up in Smoke

**Disclaimer: Do I look like I own Percy Jackson? And for those of you who haven't figured out the right answer yet that's a NO!**

**While reading this story please remember reviews make me happy!**

**Chapter 7**

"**My Dinner goes up in Smoke"**

After eating…again, the half-bloods, Rachel, and Tyson sat back down on their cozy reading spot.

"Your turn to read." Travis said picking up the book and throwing it at Clarisse who caught it right before it hit her face.

"Mind if I join." Came a timid voice from the corner

"Silena." Beckendorf said his face breaking out into a grin

"Do you feel better?" Clarisse asked Silena, who's eyes were red and puffy from crying

"Slightly, can we read now, please?"

"**My Dinner Goes up in Smoke," **Clarisse read

"You burned your dinner?" Rachel asked with raised eyebrows

"Yes."

**Word of the bathroom incident spread immediately.**

"Yup, nothing stays a secret in Camp Half-Blood for long, learned that the hard way." Travis told truthfully

"I remember when Connor told everyone you still sleep with a teddy bear." Annabeth sniggered

"Mr. Bear is not a teddy bear, he's a panda!" Travis yelled

"You are not making this any better for yourself buddy." Chris laughed

**Wherever I went, campers pointed at me and murmured something about toilet water.**

"Are you sure they didn't say you smelled like toilet water." Thalia remarked

"No! I'm pretty sure." Percy added as an afterthought

**Or maybe they were just staring at Annabeth, who was still pretty much dripping wet.**

"Why didn't you go and clean yourself?" Silena stared at Annabeth disgusted

"I don't know, I guess being trenched with toilet water was the least of my problems." Annabeth shrugged

"But still that's gross!"

**She showed me a few more places: the metal shop (where kids were forging their own swords),**

Beckendorf cheered loudly

"My eardrums." Tyson whimpered

**the arts-and-crafts room (where satyrs were sandblasting a giant marble statue of a goat-man),**

"Goat man? Goat man! How dare you the mighty Pan is no Goat Man!" Grover roared

"But technically he is half goat and half man so he is a goat man." Percy pointed out

"That doesn't mean that you can call him _Goat Man_!" Grover yelled slamming his fist on to the arm rest of the couch he was sitting on

"Goat boy scares me." Tyson whispered to Percy

**and the climbing wall, **

Almost all the half-bloods groaned at what they nicknamed the "death trap"

**which actually consisted of two facing walls that shook violently, dropped boulders, sprayed lava, and clashed together if you didn't get to the top fast enough.**

"I can see why you guys call it the death trap." Rachel commented

**Finally we returned to the canoeing lake, where the trail led back to the cabins.**

**"I've got training to do," Annabeth said flatly. "Dinner's at seven-thirty. Just follow your cabin to the mess hall."**

**"Annabeth, I'm sorry about the toilets."**

**"Whatever."**

**"It wasn't my fault."**

"But it was my young pupil." Nico said before bowing respectfully at Percy

**She looked at me skeptically, and I realized it **_**was **_**my fault. I'd made water shoot out of the bathroom fixtures. I didn't understand how. But the toilets had responded to me. I had become one with the plumbing.**

"Maybe you can be a plumber after this whole Titan thing blow over." Chris shrugged

"Sure… a plumber that's what I want to do with my life." Percy nodded

"I don't see why not? It's a decent job and besides you'd be with water all day." Connor laughed

**"You need to talk to the Oracle," Annabeth said.**

**"Who?"**

**"Not who. What.** **The Oracle. I'll ask Chiron."**

**I stared into the lake, wishing somebody would give me a straight answer for once.**

Percy nodded feeling the same way as his… um, book self.

**I wasn't expecting anybody to be looking back at me from the bottom, so my heart skipped a beat when I noticed two teenage girls sitting cross-legged at the base of the pier, about twenty feet below.**

"Naiads." Grover sighed

"Now what would Juniper say if I told her about that?" Thalia smirked

Grover froze in mid-sigh "How do you know about Juniper?" he gulped

"Annabeth iris messaged me as soon as she found out Goat Boy finally got himself a girlfriend." Thalia grinned

"Please don't tell her." Grover begged

**They wore blue jeans and shimmering green T-shirts, and their brown hair floated loose around their shoulders as minnows darted in and out. They smiled and waved as if I were a long-lost friend.**

"They were only waving because you're the son of Poseidon." Travis said

**I didn't know what else to do. I waved back.**

**"Don't encourage them," Annabeth warned. "Naiads are terrible flirts."**

"Aw, jealous?" Clarisse said making a face at Annabeth

"No!" Annabeth yelled

"Aw, Annabeth and Percy are so cute when they deny their undying love for each other!" Silena squealed though without as much energy as usual

"No we're not!" Annabeth and Percy roared while everyone sniggered

**"Naiads," I repeated, feeling completely overwhelmed. "That's it. I want to go home now."**

"Let me get this straight you were fine when you saw goat boy, bull man, and Chiron but as soon as you saw a couple of pretty girls you wanted to go home?" Beckendorf asked with raised eyebrows

"Yeah." Percy blushed

"What is wrong with you?" Most of the boys screamed

"A lot." Thalia sniggered

**Annabeth frowned. "Don't you get it, Percy? You **_**are **_**home. This is the only safe place on earth for kids like us."**

**"You mean, mentally disturbed kids?"**

"Excuse me we are not mentally disturbed we're all just…special, you're actually the only one in here that's mentally disturbed." Nico told Percy

"I will ignore that since you are younger and less powerful than me." Percy said tilting his head up, while Nico's jaw fell on to the floor

**"I mean **_**not human. **_**Not totally human, anyway. Half-human."**

**"Half-human and half-what?"**

"Well let me guess, all the cabins are named after _Greek_ gods and all the weird creatures you have met are also all _Greek_, gee I wonder what I am." Thalia said sarcastically before turning to face Percy with a "really?" look

"Sarcasm looks terrible on you cousin of mine." Percy told Thalia

"You're an idiot." She said before pushing him onto the floor

**"I think you know."**

"Can't you just tell him? It'll save so much time." Nico whined like a 3 year old who was refused for the first time

**I didn't want to admit it, but I was afraid I did. I felt a tingling in my limbs, a sensation I sometimes felt when my mom talked about my dad.**

"Are you sure you didn't just have to go to the bathroom?" Chris asked

"No it was in my arms too!" Percy yelled

**"God," I said. "Half-god." **

**Annabeth nodded. "Your father isn't dead, Percy. He's one of the Olympians."**

"One of the oldest as a matter of fact." Annabeth remarked

**"That's ... crazy."**

"Not really, you're all living proof that the Greek gods are real." Rachel exclaimed

**"Is it? What's the most common thing gods did in the old stories? They ran around falling in love with humans**

"They didn't always fall in love, most of the time they just thought they were pretty and wanted to sleep with them and we're the result." Connor sighed

"Yeah but sometimes they really do fall in love." Silena sighed misty eyed

**and having kids with them. Do you think they've changed their habits in the last few millennia?"**

"No." Everyone sighed

**"But those are just—" I almost said **_**myths **_**again. Then I remembered Chiron's warning that in two thousand years, **_**I **_**might be considered a myth.**

**"But if all the kids here are half-gods—"**

**"Demigods," Annabeth said. "That's the official term. Or half-bloods."**

"I don't get it why is half-blood the term that everybody uses when it's actually longer than the official term?" Nico being the king of confusing questions asked

"I don't know." Percy admitted

"Oh! I just thought of a new term for demi-gods!" Travis yelled excitedly while everyone starred at him waiting

"Gods, just Gods, 4 letters, one word! That is what we shall be called from now on!" Travis screamed as if he had just made a break through

"Uh, how about no! I knew it was a bad idea as soon as I heard him speak." Annabeth shook her heard muttering the last part to herself

**"Then who's your dad?"**

Thalia smacked him at this.

"You are a sexist pig!" Thalia yelled before knocking him down

Annabeth than gave him a good kick, Rachel screamed about women's rights, Clarisse took this chance to beat him up, and Silena punched.

**Her hands tightened around the pier railing. I got the feeling I'd just trespassed on a sensitive subject.**

"No, really?" Thalia said to Percy who just glared from his eye, as his other was swollen shut

**"My dad is a professor at West Point," she said. "I haven't seen him since I was very small. He teaches American history."**

**"He's human."**

"No there's just a Greek god teaching American History at West Point maybe we should visit!" Nico rolled his eyes at Percy "Holy Zeus, you look terrible!"

"Yeah that's what happens when a bunch of girls beat you up." Percy groaned

**"What? You assume it has to be a male god who finds a human female attractive? How sexist is that?"**

"Very sexist." Rachel glared at Percy

"Please don't hurt me."

**"Who's your mom, then?"**

**"Cabin six."**

"There's a god named Cabin six? I want to meet her!" Connor cheered

"You know there's really not a god named Cabin Six, right?" Beckendorf laughed

"Of course I know." Connor blushed

**"Meaning?"**

**Annabeth straightened. "Athena. Goddess of wisdom and battle."**

**Okay, I thought. Why not?**

"What's that suppose to mean?" Annabeth asked quiet snobbishly

"That I didn't believe you were telling the truth?" Percy said

"So now I'm a liar?" Annabeth raised an eyebrow

"No! I meant-the-I didn't-Please don't hurt me." Percy said

**"And my dad?"**

**"Undetermined," Annabeth said, "like I told you before. Nobody knows."**

**"Except my mother. She knew."**

"And you're dad." Travis added

**"Maybe not, Percy. Gods don't always reveal their identities."**

**"My dad would have. He loved her."**

**Annabeth gave me a cautious look. She didn't want to burst my bubble.**

"You're dad really does love you're mom." Annabeth told Percy

"I know." Percy grinned, this of course led all the half-bloods in the room to wonder if their godly parent really loved their mortal parent.

**"Maybe you're right. Maybe he'll send a sign. That's the only way to know for sure: your father has to send you a sign claiming you as his son. Sometimes it happens."**

**"You mean sometimes it doesn't?"**

Everyone felt angry at this, the gods should take responsibility for their children, they didn't even have to talk, they could just claim them!

**Annabeth ran her palm along the rail. "The gods are busy.**

"Busy my ass-"

"Language!" All the girls yelled at Nico, with the exception of Clarisse

"all they do is run around getting women pregnant, or getting pregnant and they can exist in different places at once so why can't they Iris message or something!"

"As much as I agree if we go up to the gods and tell them that they won't care if we're their kids they will kill us." Percy said truthfully

**They have a lot of kids and they don't always ... Well, sometimes they don't care about us, Percy. They ignore us."**

Rachel noticing the sad faces of the half-bloods in the room decided to say something "I think the gods do care about their kids and caring and ignoring are 2 different things."

"Well I'd rather have them not care about us than ignore us because if they don't care at least we'd know but when they ignore us we don't know if it's because they have to or they're just choosing to." Chris said barely audible and everyone silently agreed with him

"But the gods do care after everything you've been through in these past few years you can't seriously think the god don't care?" Rachel screamed trying to knock some sense into these half-bloods

"Everything we've been through in these past few years is because of the gods!" Silena shrieked while everybody starred at her in shock "Just read please." She gestured at Clarisse, who nodded dully shocked at Silena's "explosion"

**I thought about some of the kids I'd seen in the Hermes cabin, teenagers who looked sullen and depressed, as if they were waiting for a call that would never come.**

"Actually they could just look sullen and depressed because of the prank we pulled that morning involving whip cream, rings, and several 'borrowed' cell phones." Connor and Travis laughed awkwardly while their friends starred at then with raised eyebrows

**I'd known kids like that at Yancy Academy, shuffled off to boarding school by rich parents who didn't have the time to deal with them. But gods should behave better.**

"Gods are worst than mortals sometimes, to be honest they're just mortals… except their immortal and they have powers." Annabeth shrugged and everybody agreed

**"So I'm stuck here," I said. "That's it? For the rest of my life?" **

"The way you're making it sound it's almost like you don't want to be with us." Travis pouted

**"It depends," Annabeth said. "Some campers only stay the summer. If you're a child of Aphrodite or Demeter,** **you're probably not a real powerful force.**

"What do you mean we're not a powerful force?" Silena asked Annabeth with a raised eyebrow

Annabeth gulped, Silena could be quite scary when she wanted to be "You can be a powerful force when you want to be?"

**The monsters might ignore you, so you can get by with a few months of summer training and live in the mortal world the rest of the year. But for some of us, it's too dangerous to leave. We're year-rounders. In the mortal world, we attract monsters. They sense us. They come to challenge us. Most of the time, they'll ignore us until we're old enough to cause trouble—about ten or eleven years old, but after that, most demigods either make their way here, or they get killed off. A few manage to survive in the outside world and become famous. Believe me, if I told you the names, you'd know them. Some don't even realize they're demigods. But very, very few are like that."**

**"So monsters can't get in here?"**

"You're welcome." Thalia grinned

**Annabeth shook her head. "Not unless they're intentionally stocked in the woods or specially summoned by somebody on the inside."**

**"Why would anybody want to summon a monster?"**

**"Practice fights. Practical jokes."**

**"Practical jokes?"**

"I can see in my head how those practical jokes go." Thalia snorted

"Actually we did pull a prank involving a monster." Connor thought out loud

"Yeah it was the one with the harpies and the tomatoes of doom!" Travis laughed

"Oh… so you were the idiots that messed up the Demeter cabin's tomatoes they were screaming about it for a year!" Annabeth screamed angrily

"And you were the ones who set the angry harpies on us, they ate all of our weapons!" Clarisse yelled at the Stolls

"Everything's in the past?" Connor asked hoping they would just let it go

"You can beat him up later, just read for now." Chris told Clarisse, with a 'look'

**"The point is, the borders are sealed to keep mortals and monsters out. From the outside, mortals look into the valley and see nothing unusual, just a strawberry farm."**

"Why do mortals have to see a strawberry farm, why can't they see a carnival, it would be so much cooler?" Connor sighed blissfully

"Because if they see a carnival, they will try to go in, if they see a strawberry farm they'll past by." Annabeth being the logic one, told him

"But we're in the middle of no where, no one would ever see the carnival!" Connor screamed in Annabeth's face

"Than why do you want a carnival?" Annabeth screamed back

"…I don't know." Connor admitted sheepishly

**"So ... you're a year-rounder?"**

"No, she's a bunny." Thalia said which was followed by a long silence "Of course she's a year rounder!"

**Annabeth nodded. From under the collar of her T-shirt she pulled a leather necklace with five clay beads of different colors. It was just like Luke's, except Annabeth's also had a big gold ring strung on it, like a college ring.**

**"I've been here since I was seven,"**

"Ah, I remember you when you first came here, such a sweet little thing you were." Travis cooed pinching Annabeth's cheeks who starred at him furiously

"I am going to kill you." Annabeth growled her voice dangerously low "Later." She added as a second thought after a glare from Clarisse who was holding the book

**she said. "Every August, on the last day of summer session, you get a bead for surviving another year. I've been here longer than most of the counselors, and they're all in college."**

**"Why did you come so young?"**

**She twisted the ring on her necklace. "None of your business."**

"Yeah Percy, none of your beeswax!" Thalia screamed childishly sticking her tongue out at Percy

"None of your beeswax? What are you 5?" Percy snorted

**"Oh." I stood there for a minute in uncomfortable silence. "So ... I could just walk out of here right now if I wanted to?"**

"Sure…if you want to die!" Chris shrugged

**"It would be suicide, but you could, with Mr. D's or Chiron's permission. But they wouldn't give permission until the end of the summer session unless ..."**

**"Unless?"**

**"You were granted a quest. But that hardly ever happens. The last time …"**

Everyone in the room who knew what had happened scowled at the memory.

**Her voice trailed off. I could tell from her tone that the last time hadn't gone well.**

**"Back in the sick room," I said, "when you were feeding me that stuff—"**

**"Ambrosia."**

"Peanut Butter." Tyson blurted out and ignored the stares he was getting

**"Yeah. You asked me something about the summer solstice."**

**Annabeth's shoulders tensed. "So you **_**do **_**know some thing?"**

"No he doesn't." Thalia replied "book" Annabeth's question

"Oh, ha, ha very funny. Percy doesn't know anything, that's so amusing." Percy said sarcastically with no hint of humor in his voice

"Thank you for finally admitting it." Thalia smiled grimly

"Oh, shut up." Percy muttered

**"Well... no. Back at my old school, I overheard Grover and Chiron talking about it. Grover mentioned the summer solstice. He said something like we didn't have much time, because of the deadline. What did that mean?"**

**She clenched her fists.**

"Aw, did wittle Annie get mad at her wittle crush?" Travis smirked at Annie

"I am going to kill you sooner or later." Annabeth hissed

**"I wish I knew. Chiron and the satyrs, they know, but they won't tell me. Something is wrong in Olympus, something pretty major. Last time I was there, everything seemed so **_**normal**_**."**

"A bunch of 20 foot gods sitting in one room is normal?" Rachel asked bewildered

"I meant normal for Olympus." Annabeth told her

"Olympus is never normal, I swear if I have to see Apollo do ballet in his boxers with little 'I heart Jacob Black' logos on them, one more time I will crack." Beckendorf shuddered

"Apollo is team Jacob? What about Edward!" Nico screamed outraged

"I'm going to pretend you never said that and continue to listen to Percy's inner most secretive thoughts." Thalia gestured at Clarisse

**"You've been to Olympus?"**

**"Some of us year-rounders—Luke and Clarisse and I and a few others—we took a field trip during winter solstice. That's when the gods have their big annual council."**

**"But... how did you get there?"**

**"The Long Island Railroad, of course. You get off at Penn Station. Empire State Building, special elevator to the six hundredth floor." She looked at me like she was sure I must know this already.**

"Well you should've its basic facts, really." Annabeth commented

"Yes because everybody knows how to get to Olympus a place up until a few years ago I thought was non-existent." Percy shrugged

**"You **_**are **_**a New Yorker, right?"**

**"Oh, sure." As far as I knew, there were only a hundred and two floors in the Empire State Building, but I decided not to point that out.**

**"Right after we visited," Annabeth continued, "the weather got weird, as if the gods had started fighting. A couple of times since, I've overheard satyrs talking. The best I can figure out is that something important was stolen. **

**And if it isn't returned by summer solstice, there's going to be trouble. When you came, I was hoping ... I mean— Athena can get along with just about anybody, except for Ares. And of course she's got the rivalry with Poseidon.**

"Aw! How cute this is just like Romeo and Juliet, two forbidden lovers-" Silena squealed

"We are not 'forbidden lovers'!"

"Nor are we going to kill ourselves!" Annabeth agreed with Percy

"It's still cute though." Silena huffed

**But, I mean, aside from that, I thought we could work together. I thought you might know something."**

"Percy knows noth-" Thalia began

"Do the 'Percy's an idiot' jokes ever get old to you?" Percy asked tapping his foot impatiently

"No."

**I shook my head. I wished I could help her, but I felt too hungry and tired and mentally overloaded to ask any more questions.**

**"I've got to get a quest," Annabeth muttered to her self. "I'm **_**not **_**too young. If they would just tell me the problem …"**

"Quest, quest, quest, is that all that ever comes out of your mouth?" Clarisse hissed annoyed already

"As I recall you wanted a quest as bad as any of us." Annabeth pointed out

**I could smell barbecue smoke coming from somewhere nearby. Annabeth must've heard my stomach growl. **

"I think everyone within a 10 mile radius heard your stomach growl." Annabeth chuckled

**She told me to go on, she'd catch me later. **

**I left her on the pier, tracing her finger across the rail as if drawing a battle plan.**

**Back at cabin eleven, everybody was talking and horsing around, waiting for dinner. For the first time, I noticed that a lot of the campers had similar features: sharp noses, upturned eyebrows, mischievous smiles. They were the kind of kids that teachers would peg as troublemakers. **

"Speaking of troublemakers." Annabeth grinned evilly which made both of the Stolls tremble in fear "Catch."

Travis reached out and caught something right before it hit his face "What the-oh my gods it's a bomb it's a bomb!" he shrieked in a abnormally high voice, causing everyone including Connor to crack up

"What a minute this is a rock." Travis said holding up the "bomb" and shoving it in Annabeth's face, who laughed even louder

"This means war Chase!" Travis yelled furious and a bit red in the face

**Thankfully, nobody paid much attention to me as I walked over to my spot on the floor and plopped down with my Minotaur horn.**

"I bet you 5 bucks everyone was starring at him when he had his back turned." Nico told Grover

**The counselor, Luke, came over. He had the Hermes family resemblance, too.**

The children of Hermes inwardly winced at this.

"Maybe he had the family resemblance because he was a son of Hermes have you ever thought of that?" Conner asked with raised eyebrows

**It was marred by that scar on his right cheek, but his smile was intact.**

**"Found you a sleeping bag," he said. "And here, I stole you some toiletries from the camp store."**

**I couldn't tell if he was kidding about the stealing part.**

The Stolls gasped loudly "We children of Hermes never kid about stealing."

**I said, "Thanks."**

**"No prob." Luke sat next to me, pushed his back against the wall. "Tough first day?"**

**"I don't belong here," I said. "I don't even believe in gods."**

"Well that was rude." Nico stated blandly

"Coming from the king of rudeness himself." Percy rolled his eyes

**"Yeah," he said. "That's how we all started. Once you start believing in them? It doesn't get any easier."**

**The bitterness in his voice surprised me, because Luke seemed like a pretty easygoing guy. He looked like he could handle just about anything.**

"I guess he cracked." Annabeth said bitterly starring at the ceiling

**"So your dad is Hermes?" I asked.**

**He pulled a switchblade out of his back pocket, and for a second I thought he was going to gut me, but he just scraped the mud off the sole of his sandal. **

"I think he was going to gut you, he just changed his mind at the last second." Nico told Percy

"Once again your sensitivity shocks me." Percy said sarcastically

**"Yeah. Hermes."**

**"The wing-footed messenger guy."**

"I don't think Hermes will be happy with you called him the wing-footed messenger guy." Grover laughed nervously

"Why? Everyone calls him that." Percy pointed out

**"That's him. Messengers. Medicine. Travelers, merchants, thieves. Anybody who uses the roads. That's why you're here, enjoying cabin eleven's hospitality. Hermes isn't picky about who he sponsors."**

**I figured Luke didn't mean to call me a nobody.**

"I think he did." Rachel said in a small voice

"Well at least Luke and I agree on something." Thalia said though her voice was more bitter than joking

**He just had a lot on his mind.**

"Yeah a lot on his mind like how to stab us in the back and bring us on a silver platter to Kronos." Annabeth spat

**"You ever meet your dad?" I asked.**

**"Once."**

**I waited, thinking that if he wanted to tell me, he'd tell me. Apparently, he didn't. I wondered if the story had any thing to do with how he got his scar.**

**Luke looked up and managed a smile. "Don't worry about it, Percy. The campers here, they're mostly good people.**

"Notice the word mostly." Thalia sneered causing Silena to wince which went unnoticed by everyone except for Beckendorf

**After all, we're extended family, right? We take care of each other."**

**He seemed to understand how lost I felt, and I was grateful for that, because an older guy like him—even if he was a counselor—should've steered clear of an uncool middle-schooler like me. But Luke had welcomed me into the cabin. He'd even stolen me some toiletries, which was the nicest thing anybody had done for me all day.**

**I decided to ask him my last big question, the one that had been bothering me all afternoon. "Clarisse, from Ares, was joking about me being 'Big Three' material. Then Annabeth ... twice, she said I might be 'the one.' She said I should talk to the Oracle. What was that all about?"**

**Luke folded his knife. "I hate prophecies."**

"Join the club." Percy muttered

**"What do you mean?"**

**His face twitched around the scar. "Let's just say I messed things up for everybody else. The last two years, ever since my trip to the Garden of the Hesperides went sour, Chiron hasn't allowed any more quests. Annabeth's been dying to get out into the world. She pestered Chiron so much he finally told her he already knew her fate. He'd had a prophecy from the Oracle. He wouldn't tell her the whole thing, but he said Annabeth wasn't destined to go on a quest yet. She had to wait until...somebody special came to the camp."**

**"Somebody special?"**

"Guess you were that special someone." Annabeth told Percy

"Aww you guys are so cute!" Connor teased

"Shut up, Stoll!" Annabeth and Percy yelled

**"Don't worry about it, kid," Luke said. "Annabeth wants to think every new camper who comes through here is the omen she's been waiting for. Now, come on, it's dinnertime."**

"Wow I feel so special now." Percy said sarcastically

"Don't worry you're still special…in the head." Thalia smirked

**The moment he said it, a horn blew in the distance. Somehow, I knew it was a conch shell, even though I'd never heard one before.**

"So you've never watched Narnia?" Rachel questioned

"What?"

"Guess not." Rachel sighed

**Luke yelled, "Eleven, fall in!"**

**The whole cabin, about twenty of us, **

"Small group." Chris said with raised eyebrows

**filed into the commons yard. We lined up in order of seniority, so of course I was dead last. Campers came from the other cabins, too, except for the three empty cabins at the end, and cabin eight, which had looked normal in the daytime, but was now starting to glow silver as the sun went down.**

"Artemis." Thalia cheered

**We marched up the hill to the mess hall pavilion. Satyrs joined us from the meadow. Naiads emerged from the canoeing lake. A few other girls came out of the woods—**

"Oh, so you were paying attention to the girls." Connor said throwing his arms around Percy's shoulder and wiggling his eyebrows

"Get off me you weirdo." Percy barely managing to push Connor off of him

**and when I say out of the woods, I mean **_**straight **_**out of the woods. I saw one girl, about nine or ten years old,**

"A little young for you don't you think?" Connor laughed

"It's amazing how your mind is one track." Percy commented

"It is, isn't?" Connor sighed blissfully, thinking about who knows what

**melt from the side of a maple tree and come skipping up the hill.**

"That seems like something that would happen in a horror movie." Nico told them brightly

**In all, there were maybe a hundred campers, a few dozen satyrs, and a dozen assorted wood nymphs and naiads.**

**At the pavilion, torches blazed around the marble columns. A central fire burned in a bronze brazier the size of a bathtub. Each cabin had its own table, covered in white cloth trimmed in purple. Four of the tables were empty, but cabin eleven's was way overcrowded. I had to squeeze on to the edge of a bench with half my butt hanging off.**

"That's something we all wanted to know." Thalia said miming throwing up

**I saw Grover sitting at table twelve with Mr. D, a few satyrs, and a couple of plump blond boys who looked just like Mr. D. **

"Did you just call Mr. D fat?" Beckendorf asked amusement shinning in his eyes

Percy took a second as if to think "Yes I did."

**Chiron stood to one side, the picnic table being way too small for a centaur.**

"Why doesn't he have a chair or his own table?" Rachel asked

"Because Mr. D is too cheap." Annabeth replied

**Annabeth sat at table six with a bunch of serious-looking athletic kids, all with her gray eyes and honey-blond hair.**

"Did you really expect the children of Athena to be laughing and goofing around like the Hermes kids?" Annabeth asked Percy in disbelief

"No."

"What's wrong with the Hermes kids?" Travis asked slightly offended

"Nothing." Annabeth said

**Clarisse sat behind me at Ares's table. She'd apparently gotten over being hosed down, because she was laughing and belching right alongside her friends.**

Clarisse growled at that but otherwise kept silent and continued to read.

**Finally, Chiron pounded his hoof against the marble floor of the pavilion, and everybody fell silent. He raised a glass. "To the gods!"**

**Everybody else raised their glasses. "To the gods!"**

**Wood nymphs came forward with platters of food: grapes, apples, strawberries, cheese, fresh bread, and yes, barbecue!**

"Food so, so, so beautiful." Nico whimpered his eyes turning watery

"Oh my gods you're joking right?" Annabeth said in disbelief

"Of course I am." He told Annabeth before shooting the guys a 'No I'm not look', who in return gave him thumbs up

**My glass was empty, but Luke said, "Speak to it. Whatever you want—nonalcoholic, of course."**

"You were a 12 year old boy why would you ask for alcohol? Rachel asked

"Oh trust me people younger than him have tried." Annabeth rolled her eyes

**I said, "Cherry Coke."**

**The glass filled with sparkling caramel liquid.**

**Then I had an idea. "**_**Blue **_**Cherry Coke."**

**The soda turned a violent shade of cobalt.**

**I took a cautious sip. Perfect.**

**I drank a toast to my mother.**

"Aw, you are just the sweetest thing ever!" Silena cooed throwing her arms around Percy who flushed with embarrassment and shot an apologetic look at Beckendorf

The Stolls wolf whistled causing Percy to become redder than an apple.

**She's not gone, I told myself. Not permanently, anyway. She's in the Underworld. And if that's a real place, then someday...**

Nico sighed sadly before shooting Percy an envious look.

**"Here you go, Percy," Luke said, handing me a platter of smoked brisket.**

**I loaded my plate and was about to take a big bite when I noticed everybody getting up, carrying their plates toward the fire in the center of the pavilion.**

"Good thing you noticed oh you would have been in a lot of trouble." Annabeth told Percy

"Why?" Percy asked quite stupidly

"The gods don't like eating left overs."

**I wondered if they were going for dessert or something.**

"Well we were giving someone dessert." Grover told the book

**"Come on," Luke told me.**

**As I got closer, I saw that everyone was taking a portion of their meal and dropping it into the fire, the ripest straw berry, the juiciest slice of beef, the warmest, most buttery roll.**

**Luke murmured in my ear, "Burnt offerings for the gods. They like the smell."**

**"You're kidding."**

"Did he look like he was kidding?" Annabeth said to Percy

"No."

**His look warned me not to take this lightly, but I couldn't help wondering why an immortal, all-powerful being would like the smell of burning food.**

"It doesn't smell like burnt food." Nico pointed out

**Luke approached the fire, bowed his head, and tossed in a cluster of fat red grapes. "Hermes."**

**I was next.**

**I wished I knew what god's name to say.**

"Poseidon." Thalia said smirking in Percy's direction

"Shut it, Pinecone face."

**Finally, I made a silent plea. **_**Whoever you are, tell me. Please.**_

**I scraped a big slice of brisket into the flames.**

**When I caught a whiff of the smoke, I didn't gag.**

"Told you it smelled good." Nico smiled brightly, glad to be right for once

**It smelled nothing like burning food. It smelled of hot chocolate and fresh-baked brownies, hamburgers on the grill and wildflowers, and a hundred other good things that shouldn't have gone well together, but did. I could almost believe the gods could live off that smoke.**

"They do." Grover pointed out

**When everybody had returned to their seats and finished eating their meals, Chiron pounded his hoof again for our attention.**

**Mr. D got up with a huge sigh. **

**"Yes, I suppose I'd better say hello to all you brats. Well, hello. Our activities director, Chiron, says the next capture the flag is Friday. Cabin five presently holds the laurels."**

**A bunch of ugly cheering rose from the Ares table.**

**"Personally," Mr. D continued, "I couldn't care less, but congratulations. Also, I should tell you that we have a new camper today. Peter Johnson."**

"Well, hello Peter." Connor said jokingly but immediately stopped after seeing the dark look Percy shot him

**Chiron murmured something.**

**"Er, Percy Jackson," **

"At least he had the decency to correct himself." Annabeth scowled

"Well, it's kind of hard not to when the correct answer is given to you." Percy said

**Mr. D corrected. "That's right. Hurrah, and all that. Now run along to your silly campfire. Go on."**

**Everybody cheered. We all headed down toward the amphitheater, where Apollo's cabin led a sing-along. **

"Of course they did." Thalia said with distaste

**We sang camp songs about the gods and ate s'mores and joked around, and the funny thing was, I didn't feel that anyone was staring at me anymore. I felt that I was home.**

"This is your home." Annabeth smiled at Percy

"Yeah a home where you live with a bunch of teenagers you barely know who will take the first chance to stuff rice pudding into your socks." Connor grinned

**Later in the evening, when the sparks from the campfire were curling into a starry sky, the conch horn blew again, and we all filed back to our cabins. I didn't realize how exhausted I was until I collapsed on my borrowed sleeping bag.**

**My fingers curled around the Minotaur's horn. I thought about my mom, but I had good thoughts: her smile, the bedtime stories she would read me when I was a kid, the way she would tell me not to let the bedbugs bite.**

All the girls "Aw" at that, though some were more teasing than sincere

**When I closed my eyes, I fell asleep instantly.**

**That was my first day at Camp Half-Blood.**

**I wish I'd known how briefly I would get to enjoy my new home.**

"Well that was major foreshadowing." Rachel said worriedly

"After all that happy stuff you ruin it with one sentence." Thalia sighed shaking her head

"I'll read." Chris volunteered before reaching for the book

**Author's Note: Sorry it took me forever to update, there is no excuse I was lazy I'm so sorry, I'll try to update as soon as possible. Please review I'll be forever grateful, suggestions are always welcome. **

**I have a poll on my profile so please vote for which character you want me to add to my story and they will be added a few chapters from now.**

**-WishingWell414**


	10. We Capture a Flag

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson or any of its characters **

**Please review. Remember suggestions are always welcomed.**

**Chapter 8**

"**We Capture a Flag"**

"**We Capture a Flag," **Chris read

Clarisse mentally groaned at this before muttering to herself about "stupid sea spawns"

"I remember this." Percy said grinning like an idiot for a few seconds before turning to look at Annabeth with a furious look on his face "You almost killed me."

"Sorry." Annabeth muttered waving it off as if it was nothing

**The next few days I settled into a routine that felt almost normal, if you don't count the fact that I was getting lessons from satyrs, nymphs, and a centaur.**

"That's pretty normal, at least you're not buying a secret stash of candy from a unicorn named bob." Connor said, than hesitated slightly "Not that that has happened to me."

**Each morning I took Ancient Greek from Annabeth, **

"No canoodling during learning time!" Silena giggled

"Yeah Percy no canoodling." Travis added

"Just ignore them Percy, you'll be outta here in no time." Percy muttered to himself shaking his head

**and we talked about the gods and goddesses in the present tense, which was kind of weird. **

'Blah, blah, blah everything in the camp was weird, when are we going to get to the part where you fight." Nico whined

"Wait." Rachel scolded him while petting him on the head

"I don't care if you're a girl if you ever pet me on the head again I will rip your arm off." Nico glared

"Aw, does little Nico have anger management?" Thalia cooed pinching him on the cheeks

"Yes he does!" Annabeth chirped

**I discovered Annabeth was right about my dyslexia: Ancient Greek wasn't that hard for me to read. At least, no harder than English.**

"I hate both of them." Travis said in disgust

"You hate reading English and Greek?" Annabeth asked as if refusing to believe someone could hate reading

"Yup and you can't do anything about it." Travis smirked

**After a couple of mornings, I could stumble through a few lines of Homer without too much headache.**

**The rest of the day, I'd rotate through outdoor activities, looking for something I was good at. Chiron tried to teach me archery,**

"Poor Chiron, is he okay?" Annabeth said sadly

"I am not that bad at archery and…he's fine." Percy scoffed before muttering the last part

**but we found out pretty quick I wasn't any good with a bow and arrow. He didn't complain, even when he had to desnag a stray arrow out of his tail.**

"Oh my." Silena gasped

"Desnag is real word?" Thalia asked herself

"No." Annabeth answered

"How did an arrow end up in Chiron's ass?" Chris snickering at the image

"Well I shot the arrow it bounced off some kid's deflection shield, than it went through the target, than an Apollo kid hit it with his sword and finally it went into Chiron's tail." Percy muttered while everyone tried to hide their laughs

**Foot racing? No good either. The wood-nymph instructors left me in the dust. They told me not to worry about it. They'd had centuries of practice running away from lovesick gods. ****But still, it was a little humiliating to be slower than a tree.**

"**The nymphs are faster than the average half-blood." Annabeth told Percy**

"Here that? Even the trees are faster than Percy." Thalia grinned

"You are so lucky you're a daughter of Zeus otherwise…" Percy mimed strangling Thalia

"What? You'd bake me into a cookie?" Thalia raised her eyebrows

"Never play Charades with me." Percy sighed

**And wrestling? Forget it. Every time I got on the mat, Clarisse would pulverize me.**

Clarisse smirked

**"There's more where that came from, punk," she'd mumble in my ear.**

Clarisse's smirk got even bigger

**The only thing I really excelled at was canoeing,**

"Well that's…" Rachel started unable to finish the sentence

"Pathetic." Nico sniggered

"I'm good at other things too! Like sword fighting!" Percy yelled

"Only when you're in the water, admit it you're nothing without the water." Thalia commented

"Actually with some hard work and training Percy's actually gotten quite good at sword fighting, he's just stronger when he gets help from his dad." Annabeth said coming to Percy's defense

"Okay so we all agree Percy is pathetic without water, can we read now?" Chris asked holding the book in his hands with amusement shining through in his eyes

**and that wasn't the kind of heroic skill people expected to see from the kid who had beaten the Minotaur.**

"Cocky." Thalia coughed

"Idiot." Annabeth rolled her eyes

"Arrogant." Nico added

"Wow, thanks, way to boost my confidence, _friends_." Percy said dryly

"Come on Percy you know we love you." Annabeth smiled grabbing his hand

"Speak for yourself." Thalia muttered

**I knew the senior campers and counselors were watching me, **

"Are you sure it wasn't just Annabeth?" Connor asked waggling his eyebrows

**trying to decide who my dad was, but they weren't having an easy time of it. I wasn't as strong as the Ares kids,**

"Of course not." Clarisse rolled her eyes

**or as good at archery as the Apollo kids.**

"The Apollo kids aren't that good." Thalia mumbled

**I didn't have Hephaestus's skill with metalwork**

"Metalwork is a pretty hard skill to come by." Beckendorf shrugged

**or—gods forbid— Dionysus's way with vine plants. **

**Luke told me I might be a child of Hermes, a kind of jack-of-all-trades, master of none. ****But I got the feeling he was just trying to make me feel better. He really didn't know what to make of me either.**

**Despite all that, I liked camp. I got used to the morning fog over the beach, the smell of hot strawberry fields in the afternoon, even the weird noises of monsters in the woods at night. I would eat dinner with cabin eleven, scrape part of my meal into the fire, and try to feel some connection to my real dad. Nothing came. **

**Just that warm feeling I'd always had, like the memory of his smile. I tried not to think too much about my mom, but I kept wondering: if gods and monsters were real, if all this magical stuff was possible, surely there was some way to save her, to bring her back...**

Nico shot a dark look at Percy that went unnoticed

**I started to understand Luke's bitterness and how he seemed to resent his father, Hermes. ****So okay, maybe gods had important things to do. But couldn't they call once in a while, or thunder, or something? **

"I don't think you want him to call you, a god calling a half-blood tracks a lot of monsters." Annabeth said thoughtfully

"Than the gods should IM us or something, or the least they could do is claim us." Percy said angrily

**Dionysus could make Diet Coke appear out of thin air.**

"He can?" Nico said amazed "Whoa with that power, I'd never be thirsty again!"

"You can summon skeletons but you think the ability to make a soda appear out of the air is the power you want?" Percy asked amazed at the son of Hades

"Yeah summoning zombies is cool and all, but how cool would it be to have instant soda any time!" Nico grinned like the kid he rarely acted like

**Why couldn't my dad, whoever he was, make a phone appear?**

"As powerful as god is they can't make electronics appear out of thin air." Annabeth pointed out

**Thursday afternoon, three days after I'd arrived at Camp Half-Blood, I had my first sword-fighting lesson. Everybody from cabin eleven gathered in the big circular arena, where Luke would be our instructor.**

**We started with basic stabbing and slashing, using some straw-stuffed dummies in Greek armor. I guess I did okay. At least, I understood what I was supposed to do and my reflexes were good.**

All of a sudden a fist came whirling at Percy punching him right in the nose

"Ah! What was that for?" Percy screamed clutching his nose

"I wanted to test your reflexes." Travis grinned

Percy kicked Travis's shin "Now we're even!"

**The problem was, I couldn't find a blade that felt right in my hands. Either they were too heavy, or too light, or too long.**

"Oh just shut up and pick a sword." Thalia rolled her eyes

"Yeah hurry up I want to see Luke beat you up." Nico said

Percy grinned at this "I think things are going to go a little different than you thought."

**Luke tried his best to fix me up, but he agreed that none of the practice blades seemed to work for me.**

**We moved on to dueling in pairs. Luke announced he would be my partner, since this was my first time.**

**"Good luck," one of the campers told me. "Luke's the best swordsman in the last three hundred years."**

**"Maybe he'll go easy on me," I said.**

"Yeah right he'll probably end up killing you if he could do it without looking suspicious." Thalia snarled

**The camper snorted.**

**Luke showed me thrusts and parries and shield blocks the hard way. With every swipe, I got a little more battered and bruised. "Keep your guard up, Percy," he'd say, then whap me in the ribs with the flat of his blade. "No, not that far up!" **_**Whap! **_**"Lunge!" **_**Whap! **_**"Now, back!" **_**Whap!**_

"He really was trying to kill you wasn't he?" Rachel widened her eyes

"I don' think so, maybe he didn't like me but he wasn't trying to kill me…yet." Percy muttered

"I really hate Luke." Thalia grumble clutching her fist so tight her finger nails dug into her palm

**By the time he called a break, I was soaked in sweat. Everybody swarmed the drinks cooler. Luke poured ice water on his head, which looked like such a good idea, I did the same.**

"So you don't get beaten up?" Nico said as if Christmas had been delayed

"No, not quite."

**Instantly, I felt better. Strength surged back into my arms. The sword didn't feel so awkward.**

"Do me a favor kick his Luke's ass for me." Thalia told book Percy

**"Okay, everybody circle up!" Luke ordered. "If Percy doesn't mind, I want to give you a little demo."**

**Great, I thought. Let's all watch Percy get pounded.**

"I don't think so." Percy smirked

**The Hermes guys gathered around. They were suppressing smiles. I figured they'd been in my shoes before and couldn't wait to see how Luke used me for a punching bag.**

The Hermes kids tried to hide their guilty faces at this sentence.

**He told everybody he was going to demonstrate a disarming technique: how to twist the enemy's blade with the flat of your own sword so that he had no choice but to drop his weapon.**

**"This is difficult," he stressed. "I've had it used against me. No laughing at Percy, now. Most swordsmen have to work years to master this technique."**

**He demonstrated the move on me in slow motion. Sure enough, the sword clattered out of my hand.**

"How slow was he going?" Thalia asked

"Like in the movies when there's a heroic walk or something." Percy answered

"And you still dropped the stupid sword?" Clarisse asked looking at Percy as if he was a bug she wanted to squash

"That isn't important."

**"Now in real time," he said, after I'd retrieved my weapon. "We keep sparring until one of us pulls it off. Ready, Percy?"**

**I nodded, and Luke came after me. Somehow, I kept him from getting a shot at the hilt of my sword. My senses opened up. I saw his attacks coming. I countered. I stepped forward and tried a thrust of my own. Luke deflected it easily, but I saw a change in his face. His eyes narrowed, and he started to press me with more force.**

**The sword grew heavy in my hand. The balance wasn't right.**

"No! Hurry up and win before your fishy senses go away!" Thalia screamed

"But Percy didn't win he just knocked the sword out of Luke's hand." Grover told her

"Shut up Goat boy!"

**I knew it was only a matter of seconds before Luke took me down, so I figured, What the heck?**

**I tried the disarming maneuver.**

**My blade hit the base of Luke's and I twisted, putting my whole weight into a downward thrust.**

_**Clang.**_

**Luke's sword rattled against the stones.**

"Yes!" Thalia shrieked

"Why do you want to see Luke lose so badly?" Annabeth whispered to Thalia

Thalia shrugged "I guess I just don't like a traitor being so looked up too." She said quietly

**The tip of my blade was an inch from his undefended chest.**

"Kill him now." Thalia urged

"Things would have been easier, but I don't think killing him would have solved anything." Percy sighed

"Men all useless, they pretend to be your friend and you give up your life for him, and than he becomes a traitor and plans to destroy life as we know it." Thalia spat

**The other campers were silent.**

**I lowered my sword. "Um, sorry."**

"Only you would say sorry." Thalia muttered clearly over her outburst

"Percy, you don't say sorry." Tyson shook his head

**For a moment, Luke was too stunned to speak.**

**"Sorry?" His scarred face broke into a grin. "By the gods, Percy, why are you sorry? Show me that again!**

**I didn't want to. The short burst of manic energy had completely abandoned me. But Luke insisted.**

**This time, there was no contest. The moment our swords connected, Luke hit my hilt and sent my weapon skidding across the floor.**

**After a long pause, somebody in the audience said, "Beginner's luck?"**

"Nope, beginner's luck had nothing to do with it." Percy grinned

"Yeah you just became a mermaid for a minute and beat him." Nico smiled as Percy glared at him

**Luke wiped the sweat off his brow. He appraised at me with an entirely new interest. "Maybe," he said. "But I wonder what Percy could do with a balanced sword..."**

"He still sucks." Clarisse smirked

"Actually Percy is good with a sword." Grover said

"Thanks G-man." Percy grinned (Is that what Percy calls Grover?)

"He just sucks at everything else." Grover smiled

"I take my thank you back." Percy mumbled

**Friday afternoon, I was sitting with Grover at the lake, resting from a near-death experience on the climbing wall.**

**Grover had scampered to the top like a mountain goat, but the lava had almost gotten me. My shirt had smoking holes in it. The hairs had been singed off my forearms.**

"Evil, that wall is evil! Evil I say!" Nico screamed

"What did the climbing wall ever do to you?" Percy laughed

"Well…its better that you not know." Nico muttered turning red

**We sat on the pier, watching the naiads do underwater basket-weaving, until I got up the nerve to ask Grover how his conversation had gone with Mr. D.**

**His face turned a sickly shade of yellow.**

"Is that a satyr thing, being able to change colors?" Rachel asked

"No, it's a Grover thing." Annabeth smiled

**"Fine," he said. "Just great."**

**"So your career's still on track?"**

**He glanced at me nervously. "Chiron t-told you I want a searcher's license?"**

**"Well... no." I had no idea what a searcher's license was, but it didn't seem like the right time to ask. "He just said you had big plans, you know ... and that you needed credit for completing a keeper's assignment. So did you get it?"**

**Grover looked down at the naiads. "Mr. D suspended judgment. He said I hadn't failed or succeeded with you yet, so our fates were still tied together. If you got a quest and I went along to protect you, and we both came back alive, then maybe he'd consider the job complete."**

"Well that's generous of Mr. D." Beckendorf said thoughtfully

**My spirits lifted. "Well, that's not so bad, right?"**

_**"Blaa-ha-ha!**_ **He might as well have transferred me to stable-cleaning duty. The chances of you getting a quest... and even if you did, why would you want **_**me **_**along?"**

"Of course he'd want you along, right Percy." Annabeth asked kicking him in the shin

"Holy cheese! Of course I'd want you along. Gods that hurt!" Percy mumbled rubbing his leg "Just like old times, huh?"

**"Of course I'd want you along!"**

**Grover stared glumly into the water. "Basket-weaving ... Must be nice to have a useful skill."**

"You have useful skills, like swallowing an apple in a whole bite, playing the reed pipes, and you're a nice satyr." Annabeth reassured Grover

"And besides basket-weaving is not a useful skill." Percy scoffed

"Yes it is without basket weaving we would be no where." Annabeth argued

"I'm sure society would be perfectly fine without baskets." Percy huffed

**I tried to reassure him that he had lots of talents, but that just made him look more miserable. We talked about canoeing and swordplay for a while, then debated the pros and cons of the different gods. Finally, I asked him about the four empty cabins.**

**"Number eight, the silver one, belongs to Artemis," he said. "She vowed to be a maiden forever. So of course, no kids. The cabin is, you know, honorary. If she didn't have one, she'd be mad."**

"And for the hunters of course." Thalia grinned

"I think we should knock that cabin down." Percy muttered

"You do that and Artemis will turn you into a jackalope faster than you can say jackalope." Thalia stared him

**"Yeah, okay. But the other three, the ones at the end. Are those the Big Three?"**

**Grover tensed. We were getting close to a touchy subject. "No. One of them, number two, is Hera's," he said. "That's another honorary thing. She's the goddess of marriage, so of course she wouldn't go around having affairs with mortals.**

"Instead she spends all her time ruining her husband and his children's lives." Thalia muttered

**That's her husband's job. **

Everyone held back a laugh, including Thalia.

**When we say the Big Three, we mean the three powerful brothers, the sons of Kronos."**

"No, we meant the sons of Potato." Thalia said sarcastically "Of course it was the sons of Kronos, Goat Boy!"

**"Zeus, Poseidon, Hades."**

**"Right. You know. After the great battle with the Titans, they took over the world from their dad and drew lots to decide who got what."**

**"Zeus got the sky," I remembered. "Poseidon the sea, Hades the Underworld."**

"Wow, you actually remembered something that was educational, I'm impressed." Annabeth smiled at Percy

"Could you guys be any more, disgusting?" Thalia said in disgust

"I think they're so cute!" Silena exclaimed

**"Uh-huh."**

**"But Hades doesn't have a cabin here."**

"There really should be a Hades cabin." Nico slammed his hand on the arm of his chair "My father is one of the big three! He is just as powerful as Zeus and Poseidon, why doesn't he have a cabin-"

Thalia slowly moved her hand closer and closer to Nico until her hand was over his mouth, making his rant silenced

"All the gods should have a cabin, Hades and all the minor gods they have kids too, and if they don't than it should be for respect just like Artemis or Hera." Percy frowned

**"No. He doesn't have a throne on Olympus, either. He sort of does his own thing down in the Underworld. If he did have a cabin here ..." Grover shuddered. "Well, it wouldn't be pleasant. Let's leave it at that."**

"What's that suppose to mean?" Nico narrowed his eyes at Grover

"Nothing, just that if Hades had a cabin it would be…depressing?" Grover said

**"But Zeus and Poseidon—they both had, like, a bazillion kids in the myths. Why are their cabins empty?"**

"Actually it was just Zeus who had a bazillion something kids your dad was more a hundred something kids." Thalia shrugged

"Doesn't that make us feel special?" Percy smiled grimly

**Grover shifted his hooves uncomfortably.**

**"About sixty years ago, after World War II, the Big Three agreed they wouldn't sire any more heroes.**

"Look who's sitting in this room with us, a daughter of Zeus, a son of Poseidon, and a son of Hades, guess that worked out well." Rachel rolled her eyes while gesturing at Thalia, Percy, and Nico

"Technically I was born before the oath." Nico said

**Their children were just too powerful. They were affecting the course of human events too much, causing too much carnage. World War II, you know, that was basically a fight between the sons of Zeus and Poseidon on one side, and the sons of Hades on the other. **

"World War 2 was fought between the children of Big Three? So a bunch of people died because of a disagreement between a couple of too powerful half-bloods?" Rachel asked outraged

"I don't get how there could be a war between the children of the Big Three, I mean sure Percy and Nico are two of the most annoying people on the planet but I wouldn't start a war with them." Thalia muttered

"Really? What about that time you almost electrocuted me during Capture the Flag?" Percy asked

"It was an accident! Than you got all angry and thought it be funny to drop 10 gallons of water on me!" Thalia turned slightly red in the face

"Quiet! Chris read." Annabeth commanded

**The winning side, Zeus and Poseidon, made Hades swear an oath with them: no more affairs with mortal women. They all swore on the River Styx."**

**Thunder boomed.**

**I said, "That's the most serious oath you can make."**

**Grover nodded.**

**"And the brothers kept their word—no kids?"**

**Grover's face darkened. "Seventeen years ago, Zeus fell off the wagon.**

"He was the first one to fall off might I add." Percy smirked at Thalia

**There was this TV starlet with a big fluffy eighties hairdo—he just couldn't help himself. When their child was born, a little girl named Thalia... well, the River Styx is serious about promises. Zeus himself got off easy because he's immortal, but he brought a terrible fate on his daughter."**

Thalia sniffed at this, Grover shot an apologetic look at her, and Annabeth stared at the ceiling as if she was yelling at Zeus in her head.

**"But that isn't fair.' It wasn't the little girl's fault."**

"Who are you calling little girl?" Thalia muttered

**Grover hesitated. "Percy, children of the Big Three have powers greater than other half-bloods.** **They have a strong aura, a scent that attracts monsters. **

"And you didn't figure out you were a child of Big Three than? Who's been running from monsters for his whole life and than Grover pops up and says Big Three children attract monsters?" Annabeth asked sighing

**When Hades found out about the girl, he wasn't too happy about Zeus breaking his oath. Hades let the worst monsters out of Tartarus to torment Thalia. **

Thalia squeezed her eyes shut 'Hearing about my own death sucks' she thought

**A satyr was assigned to be her keeper when she was twelve, but there was nothing he could do.**

**He tried to escort her here with a couple of other half-bloods she'd befriended. They almost made it. They got all the way to the top of that hill."**

**He pointed across the valley, to the pine tree where I'd fought the minotaur. "All three Kindly Ones were after them, along with a horde of hellhounds. They were about to be overrun when Thalia told her satyr to take the other two half-bloods to safety while she held off the monsters. **

"Have I ever thanked you for that?" Annabeth asked suddenly looking up

"No."

"Thank you, so much." Annabeth said looking Thalia right in the eyes

**She was wounded and tired, and she didn't want to live like a hunted animal. The satyr didn't want to leave her, but he couldn't change her mind, and he had to protect the others. So Thalia made her final stand alone, at the top of that hill. As she died,**

"What does death feel like?" Rachel asked Thalia

"There are no words to describe it. And to be honest I can't really remember anything except for waking up and seeing Percy." Thalia said sadly, her eyes far away

**Zeus took pity on her. He turned her into that pine tree. Her spirit still helps protect the borders of the valley. That's why the hill is called Half-Blood Hill."**

**I stared at the pine in the distance.**

"Creeper." Thalia glared at Percy

**The story made me feel hollow, and guilty too. A girl my age had sacrificed herself to save her friends. She had faced a whole army of monsters. Next to that, my victory over the Minotaur didn't seem like much.**

"It's not." Thalia said blankly

**I wondered, if I'd acted differently, could I have saved my mother?**

"You mean if you sacrificed your life to save your mother's, would things have been different?" Annabeth raised an eyebrow

**"Grover," I said, "Have heroes really gone on quests to the Underworld?"**

**"Sometimes," he said. "Orpheus. Hercules. Houdini."**

"Houdini went to the underworld?" Rachel asked amazed

"Yeah that's where everyone goes sooner or later." Nico stared at her as if she were slow

"No, that's not what I meant…you know what I'm just going to be quiet."

**"And have they ever returned somebody from the dead?"**

"The dead are meant to stay dead." Nico muttered

"But Percy's mom isn't dead." Grover pointed out

"Well he doesn't know that!" Nico shot back at him

**"No. Never. Orpheus came close... . Percy, you're not seriously thinking—"**

**"No," I lied.**

"You really are a terrible liar." Grover smiled

**"I was just wondering. So ... a satyr is always assigned to guard a demigod?"**

**Grover studied me warily. I hadn't persuaded him that I'd really dropped the Underworld idea. "Not always. We go undercover to a lot of schools. We try to sniff out the half-bloods who have the makings of great heroes. If we find one with a very strong aura, like a child of the Big Three, we alert Chiron. He tries to keep an eye on them, since they could cause really huge problems."**

**"And you found me. Chiron said you thought I might be something special."**

"I think he meant it in another way." Thalia smiled sweetly

"And the Percy is stupid jokes are back." Percy grumbled

**Grover looked as if I'd just led him into a trap. "I didn't... Oh, listen, don't think like that. If you **_**were**_—**you know—you'd never **_**ever **_**be allowed a quest, and I'd never get my license. You're probably a child of Hermes. **

"Yeah right, he doesn't have the_ skillz _to be a child of Hermes." Travis said

"Like what? The ability to pickpocket an old lady?" Percy said raising his eyebrows in disbelief

**Or maybe even one of the minor gods, like Nemesis, the god of revenge. Don't worry, okay?"**

"Nemesis is a goddess not a god." Annabeth frowned

"Only you'd point that out." Percy rolled his eyes in admiration

"So cute." Silena cooed

"Are you going to do that every time they talk to each other?" Beckendorf asked her

"Yeah pretty much." Silena nodded

**I got the idea he was reassuring himself more than me.**

**That night after dinner, there was a lot more excitement than usual.**

**At last, it was time for capture the flag.**

Clarisse grimaced at this

**When the plates were cleared away, the conch horn sounded and we all stood at our tables.**

**Campers yelled and cheered as Annabeth and two of her siblings ran into the pavilion carrying a silk banner. It was about ten feet long, glistening gray, with a painting of a barn owl above an olive tree. ****From the opposite side of the pavilion, Clarisse and her buddies ran in with another banner, of identical size, but gaudy red, painted with a bloody spear and a boar's head.**

"For some reason I wouldn't want to capture that flag." Rachel grimaced at the image

**I turned to Luke and yelled over the noise, "Those are the flags?"**

"No, those are your napkins." Thalia said sarcastically

"Why are you always so sarcastic?" Percy asked

"I don't know why are you so stupid?"

"I bet you couldn't go this chapter or the next 2 chapters without insulting me or using sarcasm." Percy smirked

"And what happens if I win?"

"You choose."

"Fine if I win you have to let me give you a complete makeover and you have to prank call Athena and tell her you and Annabeth went to Las Vegas to get married, and don't think you can get out of the second one I know for a fact Annabeth has her cell phone with her." Thalia grinned obviously pleased with her request

"And if you lose?"

"I let Silena give me a makeover however she wants and…I'll sing or reenact any song or movie of your choice." Thalia said wincing at the words that just came out of her mouth

"Deal. I'm going to enjoy watching you dressed like a Barbie doll." Percy smirked, shaking hands with Thalia **(Please vote for who you want to win the bet)**

**"Yeah."**

**"Ares and Athena always lead the teams?"**

**"Not always," he said. "But often."**

**"So, if another cabin captures one, what do you do— repaint the flag?"**

**He grinned. "You'll see. First we have to get one."**

**"Whose side are we on?"**

**He gave me a sly look, as if he knew something I didn't. The scar on his face made him look almost evil in the torchlight. "We've made a temporary alliance with Athena. Tonight, we get the flag from Ares. And **_**you **_**are going to help."**

Thalia put her hands over her mouth and shut her eyes

"Come on Thalia, insult me, you know you want to." Percy sang but Thalia merely shook her head

**The teams were announced. Athena had made an alliance with Apollo and Hermes, the two biggest cabins.**

"The more the merrier." Connor grinned

**Apparently, privileges had been traded—shower times, chore schedules, the best slots for activities—in order to win support.**

**Ares had allied themselves with everybody else: Dionysus, Demeter, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus. From what I'd seen, Dionysus's kids were actually good athletes, but there were only two of them. Demeter's kids had the edge with nature skills and outdoor stuff but they weren't very aggressive. Aphrodite's sons and daughters I wasn't too worried about. They mostly sat out every activity and checked their reflections in the lake and did their hair and gossiped. **

"We can do more than just look pretty and gossip." Silena protested

"I know I'm just saying that you guys aren't very...aggressive." Percy blubbered hopelessly

**Hephaestus's kids weren't pretty, **

"Well I didn't realize this was a beauty contest." Beckendorf said

"I didn't mean it that way." Percy said wanting to die 'Stupid book revealing all my personal thoughts'

**and there were only four of them, but they were big and burly from working in the metal shop all day. They might be a problem.**

**That, of course, left Ares's cabin: a dozen of the biggest, ugliest, meanest kids on Long Island, or anywhere else on the planet.**

**Chiron hammered his hoof on the marble.**

**"Heroes!" he announced. "You know the rules. The creek is the boundary line. The entire forest is fair game. All magic items are allowed. The banner must be prominently displayed, and have no more than two guards. Prisoners may be disarmed, but may not be bound or gagged. No killing or maiming is allowed. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. Arm yourselves!"**

**He spread his hands, and the tables were suddenly covered with equipment: helmets, bronze swords, spears, oxhide shields coated in metal.**

**"Whoa," I said. "We're really supposed to use these?"**

"What did you think we were going to use sticks and leaves? Annabeth said looking at Percy with a 'gods you really are stupid' expression

Thalia clamped her mouth shut and stomped her foot on the ground.

"Let it out Thalia, let it out." Percy smiled, while Thalia glared

**Luke looked at me as if I were crazy. "Unless you want to get skewered by your friends in cabin five. Here—Chiron thought these would fit. You'll be on border patrol."**

"We're not your friends." Clarisse glared at Percy

**My shield was the size of an NBA backboard, with a big caduceus in the middle. It weighed about a million pounds.**

"Don't you think you're exaggerating a little?" Thalia winced

"Nope, it was huge." Annabeth said stretching her arms out

**I could have snowboarded on it fine, but I hoped nobody seriously expected me to run fast. **

"The game's called capture the flag what do you think we're suppose to do?" Nico rolled his eyes

**My helmet, like all the helmets on Athena's side, had a blue horsehair plume on top. Ares and their allies had red plumes.**

**Annabeth yelled, "Blue team, forward!"**

**We cheered and shook our swords and followed her down the path to the south woods. The red team yelled taunts at us as they headed off toward the north.**

**I managed to catch up with Annabeth without tripping over my equipment. "Hey."**

"This is not the time to flirt with you're girlfriend!" Clarisse yelled

"She's not my girlfriend!" Percy yelled turning slightly red, Thalia let out a whimper

**She kept marching.**

**"So what's the plan?" I asked. "Got any magic items you can loan me?"**

**Her hand drifted toward her pocket, as if she were afraid I'd stolen something.**

"Percy can't steal something even if his life depended on it." Connor snorted

**"Just watch Clarisse's spear," she said. "You don't want that thing touching you. Otherwise, don't worry. We'll take the banner from Ares. Has Luke given you your job?"**

**"Border patrol, whatever that means."**

**"It's easy. Stand by the creek, keep the reds away. Leave the rest to me. Athena always has a plan."**

"Have I ever told you how annoying you were when you were 12?" Percy smiled to let Annabeth know he was joking

"No."

"Well you were." Travis told her

**She pushed ahead, leaving me in the dust.**

**"Okay," I mumbled. "Glad you wanted me on your team."**

"You helped us win." Annabeth grinned

"Yeah by letting the Ares kids beating me up!" Percy argued

**It was a warm, sticky night. The woods were dark, with fireflies popping in and out of view**_**. **_**Annabeth stationed me next to a little creek that gurgled over some rocks, then she and the rest of the team scattered into the trees.**

**Standing there alone, with my big blue-feathered helmet and my huge shield, I felt like an idiot. The bronze sword, like all the swords I'd tried so far, seemed balanced wrong. The leather grip pulled on my hand like a bowling ball.**

"Stop complaining like a girl and fight like the man you are not!" Clarisse yelled at the book

**There was no way anybody would actually attack me, would they? I mean, Olympus had to have liability issues, right?**

Everyone laughed loudly

**Far away, the conch horn blew. I heard whoops and yells in the woods, the clanking of metal, kids fighting. A blue-plumed ally from Apollo raced past me like a deer, leaped through the creek, and disappeared into enemy territory.**

**Great, I thought. I'll miss all the fun, as usual.**

"You call being pummeled to a pulp fun? I guess we have different definitions of the word fun." Annabeth said raising her eyebrows to her hairline

"...it sounded fun." Percy pouted

Thalia muttered something to herself

"What was that? Oh sweet cousin of mine?" Percy smirked

"Nothing, I said nothing."

**Then I heard a sound that sent a chill up my spine, a low canine growl, somewhere close by.**

The half-bloods who were there shared a look

**I raised my shield instinctively; I had the feeling some thing was stalking me.**

"Good thing Clarisse came then." Annabeth muttered thinking about what could have happened it Clarisse hadn't tried to beat Percy up

**Then the growling stopped. I felt the presence retreating.**

**On the other side of the creek, the underbrush exploded. Five Ares warriors came yelling and screaming out of the dark.**

**"Cream the punk!" Clarisse screamed.**

"I can't believe you brought half of your team just to beat Seaweed Brain up." Annabeth rolled her eyes

"Well it was your plan, and your plans always work, wise girl." Percy smiled

"I can't believe we lost." Clarisse muttered to herself shaking her head

**Her ugly pig eyes glared through the slits of her helmet. She brandished a five-foot-long spear, its barbed metal tip flickering with red light. Her siblings had only the standard-issue bronze swords—not that that made me feel any better.**

**They charged across the stream. There was no help in sight. I could run. Or I could defend myself against half the Ares cabin.**

"I bet Luke gave you the extra heavy armor and stuff on purpose because he knew you wouldn't be able to run in it and than he summoned the hell hound." Annabeth said her eyes widening with realization

Percy nodded obviously coming to the same conclusion

"Wait a minute, WHAT hellhound?" Rachel asked

"It's in the book." Percy said

**I managed to sidestep the first kid's swing, but these guys were not as stupid the Minotaur. **

"I don't see much of a difference." Thalia muttered to herself

**They surrounded me, and Clarisse thrust at me with her spear. My shield deflected the point, but I felt a painful tingling all over my body. My hair stood on end. My shield arm went numb, and the air burned.**

**Electricity. Her stupid spear was electric. I fell back.**

"So you set me up and almost get me killed, the least you could have done was told me the spear was bloody electric!" Percy told Annabeth furiously

"I warned you." Annabeth said calmly without even flinching

**Another Ares guy slammed me in the chest with the butt of his sword and I hit the dirt.**

**They could've kicked me into jelly, but they were too busy laughing.**

"Arrogance." Nico muttered shaking his head

**"Give him a haircut," Clarisse said. "Grab his hair."**

**I managed to get to my feet. I raised my sword, but Clarisse slammed it aside with her spear as sparks flew. Now both my arms felt numb.**

**"Oh, wow," Clarisse said. "I'm scared of this guy. Really scared."**

"You should be!" Percy yelled defending himself

"You're talking to a book!" Annabeth told him

"Sorry got carried away."

**"The flag is that way," I told her. I wanted to sound angry, but I was afraid it didn't come out that way.**

"You just gave up out position!" Annabeth shrieked "Do you know what would have happened if they didn't try to beat you up first? They would have gotten the flag!"

"Well we won anyway, so calm down."

**"Yeah," one of her siblings said. "But see, we don't care about the flag. We care about a guy who made our cabin look stupid."**

**"You do that without my help," I told them. It probably wasn't the smartest thing to say.**

"No duh." Nico rolled his eyes

"Brother." Tyson shook his head as if scolding Percy

**Two of them came at me. I backed up toward the creek, **

"And now you kick their ass." Nico said

"Language." Thalia, Rachel, and Annabeth said

"I bet your enjoying this aren't you?" Nico glared at Percy who was smirking in his direction

**tried to raise my shield, but Clarisse was too fast. Her spear stuck me straight in the ribs. If I hadn't been wearing an armored breastplate, I would've been shish-kebabbed. As it was, the electric point just about shocked my teeth out of my mouth. One of her cabinmates slashed his sword across my arm, leaving a good-size cut.**

**Seeing my own blood made me dizzy—warm and cold at the same time.**

"You're afraid of blood?" Clarisse smirked

"No."

**"No maiming," I managed to say.**

**"Oops," the guy said. "Guess I lost my dessert privilege."**

"That's the punishment for hurting someone?" Rachel asked bewildered

"Yup." All the half-bloods answered

"There really should be a greater punishment otherwise kids will end up killing each other." Rachel frowned

"I don't know losing dessert is a pretty bad punishment." Grover said

**He pushed me into the creek and I landed with a splash.**

Percy shot a grin in Clarisse's direction, Clarisse scowled at him

**They all laughed. I figured as soon as they were through being amused, I would die. **

"We wouldn't actually kill you, just leave you half dead." Clarisse said

"And that reassures me." Percy said sarcastically

"How come you get to be sarcastic?" Thalia shouted

"Because the bet was only you couldn't use sarcasm." Percy smirked in Thalia's direction as she proceeded to rip her hair out

**But then something happened. The water seemed to wake up my senses, as if I'd just had a bag of my mom's double-espresso jelly beans.**

**Clarisse and her cabin mates came into the creek to get me, but I stood to meet them. I knew what to do. I swung the flat of my sword against the first guy's head and knocked his helmet clean off. I hit him so hard I could see his eyes vibrating as he crumpled into the water.**

**Ugly Number Two and Ugly Number Three came at me. I slammed one in the face with my shield and used my sword to shear off the other guy's horsehair plume. Both of them backed up quick. Ugly Number Four didn't look really anxious to attack, but Clarisse kept coming, the point of her spear crackling with energy. As soon as she thrust, I caught the shaft between the edge of my shield and my sword, and I snapped it like a twig.**

**"Ah!" she screamed. "You idiot! You corpse-breath worm!"**

"Nice insults Clarisse." Travis rolled his eyes

**She probably would've said worse,**

"You're right I didn't get to the swearing yet." Clarisse muttered

**but I smacked her between the eyes with my sword-butt and sent her stumbling backward out of the creek.**

"And she is silenced!" Nico yelled stretching his hand out dramatically

**Then I heard yelling, elated screams, and I saw Luke racing toward the boundary line with the red team's banner lifted high. He was flanked by a couple of Hermes guys covering his retreat, and a few Apollos behind them, fighting off the Hephaestus kids. The Ares folks got up, and Clarisse muttered a dazed curse.**

**"A trick!" she shouted. "It was a trick."**

**They staggered after Luke, but it was too late. Everybody converged on the creek as Luke ran across into friendly territory. Our side exploded into cheers. The red banner shimmered and turned to silver. The boar and spear were replaced with a huge caduceus, the symbol of cabin eleven. Everybody on the blue team picked up Luke and started carrying him around on their shoulders. Chiron cantered out from the woods and blew the conch horn.**

**The game was over. We'd won.**

Thalia sighed and pulled on her hair "By the time I win the bet, I'm going to be bald."

**I was about to join the celebration when Annabeth's voice, right next to me in the creek, said, "Not bad, hero."**

**I looked, but she wasn't there.**

"Invisibility Yankees hat, duh." Nico said

**"Where the heck did you learn to fight like that?" she asked.**

"From the water." Percy grinned

**The air shimmered, and she materialized, holding a Yankees baseball cap as if she'd just taken it off her head.**

**I felt myself getting angry. I wasn't even fazed by the fact that she'd just been invisible. "You set me up," I said. "You put me here because you knew Clarisse would come after me, while you sent Luke around the flank. You had it all figured out."**

"Of course I did, I'm a child of Athena." Annabeth said proudly

"Like mother, like daughter." Percy shook his head

**Annabeth shrugged. "I told you. Athena always, always has a plan."**

**"A plan to get me pulverized."**

"It's still a plan." Annabeth huffed

**"I came as fast as I could. I was about to jump in, but ..." She shrugged. "You didn't need help."**

**Then she noticed my wounded arm. "How did you do that?"**

**"Sword cut," I said. "What do you think?"**

**"No. It **_**was **_**a sword cut. Look at it."**

**The blood was gone. Where the huge cut had been, there was a long white scratch, and even that was fading. As I watched, it turned into a small scar, and disappeared.**

"Cool." Nico said his eyes widening

**"I—I don't get it," I said.**

"What's not to get? You have the ability to heal yourself in the water." Connor stated blandly

**Annabeth was thinking hard.**

**I could almost see the gears turning. She looked down at my feet, then at Clarisse's broken spear, and said, "Step out of the water, Percy."**

"I knew Annabeth would be the first to figure it out." Thalia grinned

**"What—"**

"Just listen to her, it would make things so much easier." Thalia muttered

**"Just do it."**

**I came out of the creek and immediately felt bone tired. My arms started to go numb again. My adrenaline rush left me. I almost fell over, but Annabeth steadied me.**

**"Oh, Styx," she cursed. "This is **_**not **_**good. I didn't want... I assumed it would be Zeus..."**

Thalia huffed and crossed her arms "Stupid bet."

**Before I could ask what she meant, I heard that canine growl again, but much closer than before. A howl ripped through the forest.**

"Werewolf!" Rachel automatically yelled

"Hellhound actually." Annabeth corrected

**The campers' cheering died instantly. Chiron shouted something in Ancient Greek, which I would realize, only later, I had understood perfectly: "**_**Stand ready**_**!**_** My bow**_**!"**

**Annabeth drew her sword.**

**There on the rocks just above us was a black hound the size of a rhino, with lava-red eyes and fangs like daggers.**

**It was looking straight at me.**

**Nobody moved except Annabeth, who yelled, "Percy, run!"**

**She tried to step in front of me, but the hound was too fast. It leaped over her—an enormous shadow with teeth—and just as it hit me, as I stumbled backward and felt its razor-sharp claws ripping through my armor, there was a cascade of thwacking sounds, like forty pieces of paper being ripped one after the other. From the hounds neck sprouted a cluster of arrows. The monster fell dead at my feet.**

"That was dramatic." Thalia rolled her eyes

"And what were you doing when all of this happened?" Percy challenged

"Protecting the camp." Thalia said

**By some miracle, I was still alive. I didn't want to look underneath the ruins of my shredded armor. My chest felt warm and wet, and I knew I was badly cut. Another second, and the monster would've turned me into a hundred pounds of delicatessen meat.**

"Lovely image." Silena muttered scrunching her nose up

**Chiron trotted up next to us, a bow in his hand, his face grim.**

_**"Di immortales!"**_ **Annabeth said. "That's a hellhound from the Fields of Punishment. They don't... they're not supposed to..."**

"Wow, I never thought the day that Annabeth would come to a lost of words, would come." Connor said

**"Someone summoned it," Chiron said. "Someone inside the camp."**

**Luke came over, the banner in his hand forgotten, his moment of glory gone.**

Thalia shook with anger "Traitor" she spat

**Clarisse yelled, "It's all Percy's fault! Percy summoned it!"**

"Are you even thinking? Why would Percy summon something to kill him?" Annabeth said

**"Be quiet, child," Chiron told her.**

**We watched the body of the hellhound melt into shadow, soaking into the ground until it disappeared.**

"I love your descriptions they just make me feel all warm inside." Nico smiled grimly

**"You're wounded," Annabeth told me. "Quick, Percy, get in the water."**

**"I'm okay."**

**"No, you're not," she said. "Chiron, watch this."**

**I was too tired to argue. I stepped back into the creek, the whole camp gathering around me.**

"Why couldn't you have waited to tell him when the whole camp wasn't watching?" Percy said

"Because you might have been dead if I didn't show him when the whole camp was watching." Annabeth sighed

**Instantly, I felt better. I could feel the cuts on my chest closing up. Some of the campers gasped.**

**"Look, I—I don't know why," I said, trying to apologize. "I'm sorry..."**

"Stop apologizing, you're special." Thalia smiled, Percy pointed at her

"I didn't insult you." Thalia smirked

**But they weren't watching my wounds heal. They were staring at something above my head.**

**"Percy," Annabeth said, pointing. "Um ..."**

**By the time I looked up, the sign was already fading, but I could still make out the hologram of green light, spinning and gleaming. A three-tipped spear: a trident.**

"Congratulations, you Percy Jackson have just been claimed!" Connor's voice boomed

**"Your father," Annabeth murmured. "This is **_**really **_**not good."**

**"It is determined," Chiron announced.**

**All around me, campers started kneeling, even the Ares cabin, though they didn't look happy about it.**

**"My father?" I asked, completely bewildered.**

"**You really are slow aren't you?" Rachel sighed**

"Yeah, water heals you, the only thing you're good at is canoe racing, a trident just appeared on your head, you can control water, gee I wonder who your dad is?" Nico rolled his eyes

**"Poseidon," said Chiron. "Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Hail, Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea God."**

"Your real name is Perseus?" Travis laughed

"That was quite an ending." Chris said

"I'll read." Beckendorf offered

**Author's Note: Please tell me who you want to win the bet, Percy or Thalia. Please review remember suggestions are always welcome. **

**I have a poll on my profile ****so please vote for which character you want me to add to my story and they will be added a few chapters from now.**

**-WishingWell414**


	11. I am Offered a Quest

**Disclaimer: I obviously don't own any books especially Percy Jackson and all of it's characters**

**Please review and vote for who you want to win the bet, details are at the bottom**

**Chapter 9**

"**I am Offered a Quest"**

"**I Am Offered a Quest," **Beckendorf read

"I wasn't offered a quest, a quest was shoved into my face." Percy muttered

**The next morning, Chiron moved me to cabin three.**

**I didn't have to share with anybody. I had plenty of room for all my stuff: the Minotaur's horn, one set of spare clothes, and a toiletry bag. I got to sit at my own dinner table, pick all my own activities, call "lights out" whenever I felt like it, and not listen to anybody else.**

"Sounds great." Travis muttered who had to share a cabin with 20 kids

"You were completely miserable weren't you?" Annabeth whispered to Percy, who nodded

**And I was absolutely miserable.**

Most of the half-bloods who had to share a cabin with a bunch of people stared at him

**Just when I'd started to feel accepted, to feel I had a home in cabin eleven and I might be a normal kid**

Thalia coughed

"What was that Thalia?" Percy smirked

—**or as normal as you can be when you're a half-blood—I'd been separated out as if I had some rare disease.**

Nico scowled at this "Stupid McDonalds, I knew they would make me sick." He muttered to himself while every stared at him with a 'What the Hades?' look

**Nobody mentioned the hellhound, but I got the feeling they were all talking about it behind my back.**

"Its camp, everyone talks behind each others backs." Annabeth said

"Yep, it's just like school except we get the joy of kicking the ass of the people we don't like, and we don't get in trouble." Thalia smiled evilly in Percy's direction

"Oh please if we fight I could beat you with my eyes shut." Percy rolled his eyes challenging Thalia

"Really? Well…I love your shoes." Thalia said swallowing loudly "So painful." She whimpered

"You know Thalia, you could just admit that you lose and you can insult me all and use sarcasm all that you want." Percy tempted Thalia

"No. Must stay strong." Thalia twitched

Connor and Travis muttered to each other and gestured at Thalia and Percy before both nodding at each other **(Please vote for who you want to win the bet, details at the bottom)**

**The attack had scared everybody. It sent two messages: one; that I was the son of the Sea God; and two, monsters would stop at nothing to kill me. They could even invade a camp that had always been considered safe.**

**The other campers steered clear of me as much as possible. **

**Cabin eleven was too nervous to have sword class with me **

Travis whistled innocently

"Acting natural, acting natural." Connor sung under his breath

**after what I'd done to the Ares folks in the woods, **

"Doesn't count, you cheated." Clarisse grumbled

**so my lessons with Luke became one-on-one. He pushed me harder than ever, and wasn't afraid to bruise me up in the process.**

**"You're going to need all the training you can get," he promised, as we were working with swords and flaming torches. "Now let's try that viper-beheading strike again. Fifty more repetitions."**

"As much I hate to admit this, the viper-beheading strike is one of my best moves." Percy said hesitantly

Thalia and Annabeth both frowned as if remembering old times

**Annabeth still taught me Greek in the mornings, but she seemed distracted. Every time I said something, she scowled at me, as if I'd just poked her between the eyes.**

"That's because you did once!" Annabeth yelled at Percy

"Smooth Percy, really smooth." Beckendorf snickered

**After lessons, she would walk away muttering to herself: "Quest ... Poseidon? ... Dirty rotten ... Got to make a plan …"**

"That's the Annabeth we all know." Grover chuckled

**Even Clarisse kept her distance, though her venomous looks made it clear she wanted to kill me for breaking her magic spear. I wished she would just yell or punch me or something.**

"What Clarisse were you scared or something?" Nico snickered, while Chris shook his head furiously at him behind Clarisse

"No!" Clarisse hissed

**I'd rather get into fights every day than be ignored.**

"I can make that happen." Clarisse said raising her eyebrows at Percy

"No thanks."

**I knew somebody at camp resented me, because one night I came into my cabin and found a mortal newspaper dropped inside the doorway, a copy of the **_**New York Daily News, **_**opened to the Metro page. **

"Who do you think it was?" Rachel asked silently

"I don't know, could be anyone." Percy responded sighing

**The article took me almost an hour to read,**

"That's sad. When we get back remind me to assign you some books to read maybe Harry Potter or the Hunger Games." Annabeth said thoughtfully

"Yay." Percy cheered dully

**because the angrier I got, the more the words floated around on the page.**

_**BOY AND MOTHER STILL MISSING AFTER**_ _**FREAK CAR ACCIDENT**_

_**BY EILEEN SMYTHE**_

_**Sally Jackson and son Percy are still missing one week after their mysterious disappearance. The family's badly burned '78 Camaro was discovered last Saturday on a north Long Island road with the roof ripped off and the front axle broken.**_

"Let's see how the mortals try to explain the roof being ripped off a car."

_**The car had flipped and skidded for several hundred feet before exploding.**_

"I like explosions." Beckendorf muttered to himself taking a minute to stop reading

_**Mother and son had gone for a weekend vacation to Montauk, but left hastily, under mysterious circumstances. Small traces of blood were found in the car and near the scene of the wreck, but there were no other signs of the missing Jacksons. Residents in the rural area reported seeing nothing unusual around the time of the accident.**_

_**Ms. Jackson's husband, Gabe Ugliano, claims that his stepson, Percy Jackson, is a troubled child who has been kicked out of numerous boarding schools and has expressed violent tendencies in the past.**_

Everyone in the room narrowed their eyes at this, Gabe had no right to say those things about Percy

_**Police would not say whether son Percy is a suspect in his mother's disappearance, but they have not ruled out foul play. Below are recent pictures of Sally Jackson and Percy. Police urge anyone with information to call the following toll-free crime-stoppers hotline.**_

**The phone number was circled in black marker.**

**I wadded up the paper and threw it away, then flopped down in my bunk bed in the middle of my empty cabin.**

**"Lights out," I told myself miserably.**

"You know, talking to yourself is the first sign of insanity." Rachel stated

"I thought killing little animals was the first sign of insanity?" Percy asked

"No that's the first sign of a psychopath." Chris answered

**That night, I had my worst dream yet.**

**I was running along the beach in a storm. This time, there was a city behind me. Not New York. The sprawl was different: buildings spread farther apart, palm trees and low hills in the distance.**

"Palm trees? Which city is this?" Annabeth thought

**About a hundred yards down the surf, two men were fighting. They looked like TV wrestlers, muscular, with beards and long hair. Both wore flowing Greek tunics, one trimmed in blue, the other in green. **

"Wrestlers…you thought they were wrestlers?" Thalia said choking back a laugh

**They grappled with each other, wrestled, kicked and head-butted, and every time they connected, lightning flashed, the sky grew darker, and the wind rose.**

**I had to stop them. I didn't know why. But the harder I ran, the more the wind blew me back, until I was running in place, my heels digging uselessly in the sand.**

"Why is it that in dreams you can never reach your goals?" Rachel asked

"Maybe it has something to do with life, in life you have to strive to reach your goals and in dreams you aren't trying as hard as you could be." Nico shrugged

"That was…deep." Percy nodded

**Over the roar of the storm, I could hear the blue-robed one yelling at the green-robed one, **_**Give it back! Give it back! **_**Like a kindergartner fighting over a toy.**

"You are so lucky the gods aren't in the room with us, otherwise you'd be dead meat." Annabeth snickered

**The waves got bigger, crashing into the beach, spraying me with salt.**

**I yelled, **_**Stop it! Stop fighting!**_

**The ground shook. Laughter came from somewhere under the earth, and a voice so deep and evil it turned my blood to ice**_**.**_

"That sounds uncomfortable." Tyson muttered twiddling his thumbs

_**Come down, little hero, **_**the voice crooned. **_**Come down!**_

**The sand split beneath me, opening up a crevice straight down to the center of the earth. My feet slipped, and darkness swallowed me.**

**I woke up, sure I was falling.**

Thalia shivered "Hate those dreams."

**I was still in bed in cabin three. My body told me it was morning, but it was dark outside, and thunder rolled across the hills. A storm was brewing. I hadn't dreamed that.**

"Creepy." Nico muttered

"Half-blood dreams are always real so it's never shocking." Annabeth shrugged

"So the dream where Katie and I were making out-" Travis started breaking it off awkwardly while turning red

"No, not those kinds of dreams." Annabeth sighed amused

**I heard a clopping sound at the door, a hoof knocking on the threshold.**

**"Come in?"**

**Grover trotted inside, looking worried. "Mr. D wants to see you."**

**"Why?"**

**"He wants to kill... I mean, I'd better let him tell you."**

"Very inconspicuous Grover." Nico snickered

"It's not very surprising to be honest, Mr. D wants to kill every one of those 'brats'." Annabeth quoted after Mr. D

**Nervously, I got dressed and followed, sure that I was in huge trouble.**

"I hate this bet." Thalia muttered

"I'll say it for you instead." Nico told his cousin "Percy's always in trouble, Percy's an idiot." He shrieked in a freakishly high voice

"I don't talk like that." Thalia sneered twitching

"Uh…Thalia you're…" Annabeth gestured at her own eye

"I know." Thalia twitched again

**For days, I'd been half expecting a summons to the Big House. Now that I was declared a son of Poseidon, one of the Big Three gods who weren't supposed to have kids, I figured it was a crime for me just to be alive.**

Thalia twitched again "Must not make sarcastic comment, must not make sarcastic comment." She muttered hugging her knees and rocking back and forth

"And she cracked." Annabeth said starring at Thalia

"Maybe we should just call the bet off." Percy said putting a hand on Thalia's shoulder to stop her from rocking back and forth

"No! I am going to win this thing!" Thalia screamed twitching, while everyone stared at her worriedly

**The other gods had probably been debating the best way to punish me for existing, **

"You're father wouldn't let them do that, he loves you." Annabeth told Percy looking him in the eyes

"Ahem." Connor coughed ruining the moment

**and now Mr. D was ready to deliver their verdict.**

**Over Long Island Sound, the sky looked like ink soup coming to a boil. A hazy curtain of rain was coming in our direction.**

**I asked Grover if we needed an umbrella.**

Thalia opened and closed her mouth like a fish before grabbing a pillow and screaming into it

"Thalia's right that was a stupid question." Annabeth said patting Thalia on the back as she screamed into the fluffy pillow

**"No," he said. "It never rains here unless we want it to."**

**I pointed at the storm. "What the heck is that, then?"**

**He glanced uneasily at the sky. "It'll pass around us. Bad weather always does."**

**I realized he was right. In the week I'd been here, it had never even been overcast. The few rain clouds I'd seen had skirted right around the edges of the valley.**

**But this storm ... this one was huge.**

"And whose fault is that?" Annabeth shot a pointed look at Percy

"Not mine, I was actually innocent remember?" Percy said

**At the volleyball pit, the kids from Apollo's cabin were playing a morning game against the satyrs. Dionysus's twins were walking around in the strawberry fields, making the plants grow. **

Everyone in the room grew sadden at being reminded of the death of Castor.

**Everybody was going about their normal business, but they looked tense. They kept their eyes on the storm.**

**Grover and I walked up to the front porch of the Big House. Dionysus sat at the pinochle table in his tiger-striped Hawaiian shirt with his Diet Coke, just as he had on my first day. Chiron sat across the table in his fake wheel chair. They were playing against invisible opponents-two sets of cards hovering in the air.**

"You know every time a half-blood goes to the big house, Mr. D and Chiron are always into the same position." Annabeth said starring at the book in wonder

**"Well, well," Mr. D said without looking up. "Our little celebrity."**

**I waited.**

**"Come closer," Mr. D said. "And don't expect me to kowtow to you, mortal, just because old Barnacle-Beard is your father."**

"Old barnacle-beard?" Nico said amused before turning to Percy "You shall be Barnacle for brains."

"Oh are we giving each other code names? I shall be Sparkly Mc Boom Boom!" Connor said making everyone doubt his…manly hood, if it even existed that is.

**A net of lightning flashed across the clouds. Thunder shook the windows of the house.**

**"Blah, blah, blah," Dionysus said.**

**Chiron feigned interest in his pinochle cards. Grover cowered by the railing, his hooves clopping back and forth.**

**"If I had my way," Dionysus said, "I would cause your molecules to erupt in flames. We'd sweep up the ashes and be done with a lot of trouble. But Chiron seems to feel this would be against my mission at this cursed camp: to keep you little brats safe from harm."**

**"Spontaneous combustion **_**is **_**a form of harm, Mr. D," Chiron put in.**

"I think Chiron just saved my life, or, err- my book self's life." Percy said amused

Thalia muttered something under her breath that went unheard before twitching again

**"Nonsense," Dionysus said. "Boy wouldn't feel a thing. Nevertheless, I've agreed to restrain myself. I'm thinking of turning you into a dolphin instead, sending you back to your father."**

"Dolphins." Tyson muttered his eyes faraway as he started to make whooshing sounds with his mouth

**"Mr. D—" Chiron warned.**

**"Oh, all right," Dionysus relented. "There's one more option. But it's deadly foolishness." Dionysus rose, and the invisible players' cards dropped to the table. "I'm off to Olympus for the emergency meeting. If the boy is still here when I get back, I'll turn him into an Atlantic bottlenose. Do you understand? And Perseus Jackson, if you're at all smart, you'll see that's a much more sensible choice than what Chiron feels you must do."**

"I think you make a better hamster." Annabeth smiled sweetly at Percy

"I thought you promised we would never speak of that!" Percy hissed at Annabeth turning red at the memory

**Dionysus picked up a playing card, twisted it, and it became a plastic rectangle. A credit card? No. A security pass.**

**He snapped his fingers.**

**The air seemed to fold and bend around him. He became a hologram, then a wind, then he was gone, leaving only the smell of fresh-pressed grapes lingering behind.**

"Gone at last." Nico sighed in relief

"I thought you liked Mr. D?" Percy asked slightly confused

"I know it's for your sake, wouldn't want you to get into to much trouble so soon, now would we?" Nico smiled at grimly but for a second a flash of worry appeared on his face

**Chiron smiled at me, but he looked tired and strained. "Sit, Percy, please. And Grover."**

**We did.**

"Like he thought you'd refuse." Clarisse rolled her eyes, as if it was stupid this was even mentioned

**Chiron laid his cards on the table, a winning hand he hadn't gotten to use.**

**"Tell me, Percy," he said. "What did you make of the hellhound?"**

**Just hearing the name made me shudder.**

**Chiron probably wanted me to say, **_**Heck, it was nothing. I eat hellhounds for breakfast.**_

"You must hate breakfast than." Grover smirked at Percy

"I wonder if Daedalus knows he left his pet with such a dangerous person." Nico smiled slightly

**But I didn't feel like lying.**

The Stolls gasped loudly "How can you not feel like lying? That must be a crime, and not even the good kind!" they stated in unison

**"It scared me," I said. "If you hadn't shot it, I'd be dead."**

**"You'll meet worse, Percy. Far worse, before you're done."**

"Chiron sure does know how to give pep talks." Annabeth grimaced and almost everyone in the room agreed having had one Chiron's famous talks

**"Done ... with what?"**

**"Your quest, of course. Will you accept it?"**

"Well obviously I wasn't not going to accept it." Percy muttered

**I glanced at Grover, who was crossing his fingers.**

**"Um, sir," I said, "you haven't told me what it is yet."**

**Chiron grimaced. "Well, that's the hard part, the details."**

**Thunder rumbled across the valley. The storm clouds had now reached the edge of the beach. As far as I could see, the sky and the sea were boiling together.**

**"Poseidon and Zeus," I said. "They're fighting over something valuable ... something that was stolen, aren't they?"**

"Aw… I'm so proud of you; you finally figured something out without my help!" Annabeth cooed

"I'm going to pretend that, that didn't offend me." Percy huffed crossing his arms over his chest

**Chiron and Grover exchanged looks.**

**Chiron sat forward in his wheelchair. "How did you know that?"**

**My face felt hot. I wished I hadn't opened my big mouth. "The weather since Christmas has been weird, like the sea and the sky are fighting. Then I talked to Annabeth, and she'd overheard something about a theft.**

"You just had to bring me into this didn't you? You couldn't have been valiant and lie?" Annabeth glared

"I thought being valiant meant living by honor?" Percy asked bewildered

"Now he chooses to read a dictionary." Annabeth muttered

**And ... I've also been having these dreams."**

**"I knew it," Grover said.**

**"Hush, satyr," Chiron ordered.**

**"But it is his quest!" Grover's eyes were bright with excitement. "It must be!"**

Everybody chuckled at Grover's excitement

**"Only the Oracle can determine." **

**Chiron stroked his bristly beard. **

"Tell me Chiron didn't really just stroke his beard." Thalia winced shaking her head

"I wish I could but than I'd be lying." Percy muttered

**"Nevertheless, Percy, you are correct. Your father and Zeus are having their worst quarrel in centuries. They are fighting over something valuable that was stolen. To be precise: a lightning bolt."**

**I laughed nervously. "A **_**what**_**?"**

"Don't take this lightly, the lightning bolt is one of the most powerful weapons in existence." Thalia frowned at Percy

"You sound like Ms. Dodds." Percy rolled his eyes while Thalia thought of 157 ways to kill a certain son of Poseidon after this stupid bet was over in her head

**"Do not take this lightly," Chiron warned. "I'm not talking about some tinfoil-covered zigzag you'd see in a second-grade play. **

"I can just see Zeus holding up a tinfoil covered zigzag that some overprotected mom made during the war and screaming 'eat zigzag daddy'!" Chris snickered while everyone chocked back laughter at the image

**I'm talking about a two-foot-long cylinder of high-grade celestial bronze, capped on both ends with god-level explosives."**

**"Oh."**

**"Zeus's master bolt," Chiron said, getting worked up now. "The symbol of his power, from which all other lightning bolts are patterned. The first weapon made by the Cyclopes for the war against the Titans, the bolt that sheered the top off Mount Etna and hurled Kronos from his throne; the master bolt, which packs enough power to make mortal hydrogen bombs look like firecrackers."**

"Whoa." Rachel said amazed

**"And it's missing?"**

**"Stolen," Chiron said.**

**"By who?"**

**"By **_**whom**_**," Chiron corrected.**

"Once a teacher always a teacher." Thalia sighed

**Once a teacher, always a teacher.**

At this Thalia looked horrified

"Looks like we have a lot more in common than you thought." Percy nudged Thalia who looked like she was seeing her own death before her eyes

**"By you."**

"I knew you were guilty!" Nico screamed pointing at Percy

"It's always the clueless ones." Beckendorf chuckled

**My mouth fell open.**

**"At least"—Chiron held up a hand—"that's what Zeus thinks. During the winter solstice, at the last council of the gods, Zeus and Poseidon had an argument. **

"So? They're always arguing." Annabeth rolled her eyes

**The usual nonsense: 'Mother Rhea always liked you best,' 'Air disasters are more spectacular than sea disasters,' etcetera. **

"Seriously? Those are the arguments that two of the most powerful gods have?" Rachel said unable decide if she should be amused or horrified

**Afterward, Zeus realized his master bolt was missing, taken from the throne room under his very nose. He immediately blamed Poseidon. ****Now, a god cannot usurp another god's symbol of power directly—that is forbidden by the most ancient of divine laws. But Zeus believes your father convinced a human hero to take it."**

**"But I didn't—"**

**"Patience and listen, child," Chiron said. "Zeus has good reason to be suspicious. The forges of the Cyclopes are under the ocean, which gives Poseidon some influence over the makers of his brother's lightning. Zeus believes Poseidon has taken the master bolt, and is now secretly having the Cyclopes build an arsenal of illegal copies, which might be used to topple Zeus from his throne.**

"That's insane." Nico said bewildered

"It could happen." Thalia muttered

"Like father, like daughter." Percy smirked in Thalia's direction

Thalia growled clenching her fist and unclenching it "Must resist urges to strangle cousin." Thalia twitched

"You know technically the bet was only you couldn't use sarcasm and insult him it said nothing about violence." Grover said

"Thanks a lot Grover." Percy and Thalia both said with different tones

**The only thing Zeus wasn't sure about was which hero Poseidon used to steal the bolt. Now Poseidon has openly claimed you as his son. You were in New York over the winter holidays. You could easily have snuck into Olympus. Zeus believes he has found his thief."**

"Did Zeus even think?" Percy rolled his eyes before Thalia shocked him

**"But I've never even been to Olympus! Zeus is crazy!"**

Thalia stared at him in wonder as if thinking 'how the Hades is he still alive?'

"I'm surprised you weren't electrocuted right there." Annabeth muttered

**Chiron and Grover glanced nervously at the sky. The clouds didn't seem to be parting around us, as Grover had promised. They were rolling straight over our valley, sealing us in like a coffin lid.**

**"Er, Percy ...?" Grover said. "We don't use the **_**c**_**-word to describe the Lord of the Sky."**

**"Perhaps **_**paranoid," **_**Chiron suggested. "Then again, Poseidon has tried to unseat Zeus before. I believe that was question thirty-eight on your final exam..." He looked at me as if he actually expected me to remember question thirty-eight.**

"Well why wouldn't you?" Annabeth said but after receiving a bunch of 'really?' looks she quickly said "Doesn't everyone remember all the questions on a test by memory?" she asked

Everyone in the room shook their heads

**How could anyone accuse me of stealing a god's weapon? I couldn't even steal a slice of pizza from Gabe's poker party without getting busted. **

"That's really sad." Connor shook his head

"How could you not be able steal a slice of pizza from _Gabe_." Travis said looking at Percy ashamed

**Chiron was waiting for an answer.**

**"Something about a golden net?" I guessed. "Poseidon and Hera and a few other gods ... they, like, trapped Zeus and wouldn't let him out until he promised to be a better ruler, right?"**

**"Correct," Chiron said. "And Zeus has never trusted Poseidon since. **

"Zeus never trusted Poseidon before." Percy rolled his eyes

**Of course, Poseidon denies stealing the master bolt. He took great offense at the accusation. The two have been arguing back and forth for months, threatening war. And now, you've come along—the proverbial last straw."**

**"But I'm just a kid!"**

"So? Kids can do terrible things too." Silena shrugged

**"Percy," Grover cut in, "if you were Zeus, and you already thought your brother was plotting to overthrow you, then your brother suddenly admitted he had broken the sacred oath he took after World War II, that he's fathered a new mortal hero who might be used as a weapon against you... Wouldn't that put a twist in your toga?"**

"Twist in your toga…that's an interesting expression." Nico said

**"But I didn't do anything. Poseidon—my dad—he didn't really have this master bolt stolen, did he?"**

**Chiron sighed. "Most thinking observers would agree that thievery is not Poseidon's style. But the Sea God is too proud to try convincing Zeus of that. Zeus has demanded that Poseidon return the bolt by the summer solstice. That's June twenty-first, ten days from now. Poseidon wants an apology for being called a thief by the same date. I hoped that diplomacy might prevail, that Hera or Demeter or Hestia would make the two brothers see sense. But your arrival has inflamed Zeus's temper. Now neither god will back down. Unless someone intervenes, unless the master bolt is found and returned to Zeus before the solstice, there will be war. And do you know what a full-fledged war would look like, Percy?"**

"Whoa, whoa , whoa how did this conversation lead into World War 3?" Nico said rubbing his temples dizzily

**"Bad?" I guessed.**

**"Imagine the world in chaos. Nature at war with itself. Olympians forced to choose sides between Zeus and Poseidon. Destruction. Carnage. Millions dead. Western civilization turned into a battleground so big it will make the Trojan War look like a water-balloon fight."**

"That sounds horrible." Rachel winced

**"Bad," I repeated.**

"Bad." Clarisse snorted

**"And you, Percy Jackson, would be the first to feel Zeus's wrath."**

**It started to rain. Volleyball players stopped their game and stared in stunned silence at the sky.**

_**I **_**had brought this storm to Half-Blood Hill. Zeus was punishing the whole camp because of me. I was furious.**

"You're mad at my dad….for watering the crops." Thalia said carefully making sure there was no sarcasm in the way she said that

**"So I have to find the stupid bolt," I said. "And return it to Zeus."**

**"What better peace offering," Chiron said, "than to have the son of Poseidon return Zeus's property?"**

**"If Poseidon doesn't have it, where is the thing?"**

"The thing? That's what you call one of the most powerful weapons ever?" Thalia said raising her eyebrows

"Yeah pretty much. Why do you think I'm stupid for calling it that?" Percy said innocently while Thalia glared at him

**"I believe I know." Chiron's expression was grim. "Part of a prophecy I had years ago ... well, some of the lines make sense to me, now. But before I can say more, you must officially take up the quest. You must seek the counsel of the Oracle."**

**"Why can't you tell me where the bolt is beforehand?"**

**"Because if I did, you would be too afraid to accept the challenge."**

**I swallowed. "Good reason."**

**"You agree then?"**

**I looked at Grover, who nodded encouragingly.**

**Easy for him. I was the one Zeus wanted to kill.**

"Zeus didn't want to kill you…he just wants to throw you into the deepest pit in hell or at least do some internal damage." Annabeth shrugged as if to say this is nothing

**"All right," I said. "It's better than being turned into a dolphin."**

"I don't know being a dolphin sounds pretty cool." Connor said

"I'll be sure to tell Mr. D that once we get back." Percy smiled broadly

**"Then it's time you consulted the Oracle," Chiron said. "Go upstairs, Percy Jackson, to the attic. When you come back down, assuming you're still sane, we will talk more."**

"What does he mean by assuming you're still sane?" Rachel being the clueless mortal of the group asked

"He means if Percy hasn't lost his mind they'll talk." Thalia sighed annoyed

**Four flights up, the stairs ended under a green trap door.**

**I pulled the cord. The door swung down, and a wooden ladder clattered into place.**

**The warm air from above smelled like mildew and rotten wood and something else ... a smell I remembered from biology class. Reptiles. The smell of snakes.**

Silena wrinkled her nose in disgust

**I held my breath and climbed.**

**The attic was filled with Greek hero junk: armor stands covered in cobwebs; once-bright shields pitted with rust; old leather steamer trunks plastered with stickers saying ITHAKA, CIRCE'S ISLE, and LAND OF THE AMAZONS. One long table was stacked with glass jars filled with pickled **_**things**_—**severed hairy claws, huge yellow eyes, various other parts of monsters. A dusty mounted trophy on the wall looked like a giant snake's head, but with horns and a full set of shark's teeth. The plaque read, HYDRA HEAD #1, WOODSTOCK, N.Y., 1969.**

**By the window, sitting on a wooden tripod stool, was the most gruesome memento of all: a mummy.**

Everyone who was there during the capture the flag game with the hunters shivered at the memory of the oracle taking a walk in the forest

**Not the wrapped-in-cloth kind, but a human female body shriveled to a husk. **

"Can we skip this I think everyone here has seen the oracle." Grover said looking slightly green

Beckendorf decided to ignore him and continue to read

"And he continues to read anyway." Grover muttered

**She wore a tie-dyed sundress, lots of beaded necklaces, and a headband over long black hair. The skin of her face was thin and leathery over her skull, and her eyes were glassy white slits, as if the real eyes had been replaced by marbles; she'd been dead a long, long time.**

"What told you that the marble for eyeballs or the skull?" Nico smirked at Percy's…err stupidity

**Looking at her sent chills up my back. **

"Looking at her sends chills up everybody's back." Grover shivered

**And that was before she sat up on her stool and opened her mouth. A green mist poured from the mummy's mouth, coiling over the floor in thick tendrils, hissing like twenty thousand snakes. **

**I stumbled over myself trying to get to the trap door, but it slammed shut.**

"That sounds like something straight out of a horror movie." Rachel shivered

"Where do you think the producers come up with the idea?" Annabeth smirked as if to say 'ha another thing that mortals stole from us!'

**Inside my head, I heard a voice, slithering into one ear and coiling around my brain: **_**I am the spirit of Delphi, speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python. Approach, seeker, and ask.**_

**I wanted to say, **_**No thanks, wrong door, just looking for the bathroom.**_

"I wonder if the oracle would actually answer to that." Rachel asked interested

Connor and Travis both got a wicked gleam in there eyes

"Don't even try." Annabeth glared at the two

**But I forced myself to take a deep breath.**

**The mummy wasn't alive. She was some kind of gruesome receptacle for something else, the power that was now swirling around me in the green mist. But its presence didn't feel evil, like my demonic math teacher Mrs. Dodds or the Minotaur. It felt more like the Three Fates I'd seen knitting the yarn outside the highway fruit stand: ancient, powerful, and definitely **_**not **_**human. But not particularly interested in killing me, either.**

"I wonder how that feels like." Thalia muttered

**I got up the courage to ask, "What is my destiny?"**

A few people snickered

"How cheesy, you might as well be in a Hollywood movie if you keep spurting out lines like that." Annabeth rolled her eyes playfully at Percy

**The mist swirled more thickly, collecting right in front of me and around the table with the pickled monster-part jars. Suddenly there were four men sitting around the table, playing cards. Their faces became clearer. It was Smelly Gabe and his buddies.**

Everyone in the room scowled

"It just had to be him didn't it?" Annabeth grumbled

**My fists clenched, though I knew this poker party couldn't be real. It was an illusion, made out of mist.**

**Gabe turned toward me and spoke in the rasping voice of the Oracle: **_**You shall go west, and face the god who has turned.**_

**His buddy on the right looked up and said in the same voice: **_**You shall find what was stolen, and see it safely returned.**_

"Well that's good that's what the whole prophecy is about…right?" Rachel asked after seeing the grim faces of the half-bloods except for Nico who was completely clueless

**The guy on the left threw in two poker chips, then said: **_**You shall be betrayed by one who calls you a friend.**_

Everyone seemed to have different reaction to this, some gasped, others glared at the book, and a few looked down

**Finally, Eddie, our building superior, delivered the worst line of all: **_**And you shall fail to save what matters most, in the end.**_

"Your mother." Rachel breathed

"But Percy's mother is still here so it has to be something else." Nico said to Rachel, them being the only ones that didn't know what happened

Percy smiled all knowingly at them making everyone who didn't know what happened want to strangle him

**The figures began to dissolve. At first I was too stunned to say anything, but as the mist retreated, coiling into a huge green serpent and slithering back into the mouth of the mummy, I cried, "Wait! What do you mean? What friend? What will I fail to save?"**

"There's no point in yelling she's not going to tell you anything." Annabeth said leaning into Percy and closing her eyes

**The tail of the mist snake disappeared into the mummy's mouth. She reclined back against the wall. Her mouth closed tight, as if it hadn't been open in a hundred years. The attic was silent again, abandoned, nothing but a room full of mementos.**

**I got the feeling that I could stand here until I had cob webs, too, and I wouldn't learn anything else.**

**My audience with the Oracle was over.**

"So dramatic." Chris shook his head

**"Well?" Chiron asked me.**

**I slumped into a chair at the pinochle table. "She said I would retrieve what was stolen."**

**Grover sat forward, chewing excitedly on the remains of a Diet Coke can. "That's great!"**

"You really shouldn't make assumptions until he finishes." Silena scolded the satyr who blushed

**"What did the Oracle say **_**exactly?" **_**Chiron pressed. "This is important."**

"Of course it's important." Annabeth frowned

"Well I didn't see you telling everything to Chiron when you got your quest." Percy raised his eyebrows at Annabeth whose frown had turned into a scowl

**My ears were still tingling from the reptilian voice. "She ... she said I would go west and face a god who had turned. I would retrieve what was stolen and see it safely returned."**

**"I knew it," Grover said.**

**Chiron didn't look satisfied. "Anything else?"**

**I didn't want to tell him.**

**What friend would betray me? I didn't have that many.**

"This is why you should have suspected Luke." Thalia spat

**And the last line—I would fail to save what mattered most. What kind of Oracle would send me on a quest and tell me, **_**Oh, by the way, you'll fail**_**.**

"Okay the oracle did not say you'd fail." Annabeth shot a pointed look at Percy

"Stop being such a downer." Clarisse rolled her eyes

**How could I confess that?**

**"No," I said. "That's about it."**

"Liar, liar, pants on fire!" Nico yelled pointing an accusing finger at Percy while inching away as if lying was a disease he might catch

**He studied my face. "Very well, Percy. But know this: the Oracle's words often have double meanings. Don't dwell on them too much. The truth is not always clear until events come to pass."**

"Listen to him Percy." Grover urged

"You know I'm right here right?" Percy smiled at his best friend's worry

"Sorry got caught up in the book." Grover blushed while everyone agreed

**I got the feeling he knew I was holding back something bad, and he was trying to make me feel better.**

"He's an adult it's kind of his job to make depressed 12 year olds feel better." Thalia comforted Percy in her own…special way

**"Okay," I said, anxious to change topics. "So where do I go? Who's this god in the west?"**

**"Ah, think, Percy," Chiron said. "If Zeus and Poseidon weaken each other in a war, who stands to gain?"**

"What is he talking abo-"Nico broke off in mid-sentence "It's my dad isn't it?" he sighed

Percy nodded

**"Somebody else who wants to take over?" I guessed.**

**"Yes, quite. Someone who harbors a grudge, who has been unhappy with his lot since the world was divided eons ago, whose kingdom would grow powerful with the deaths of millions. Someone who hates his brothers for forcing him into an oath to have no more children, an oath that both of them have now broken."**

Nico sighed, that did sound like his father

**I thought about my dreams, the evil voice that had spoken from under the ground. "Hades."**

**Chiron nodded. "The Lord of the Dead is the only possibility."**

"No he isn't." Nico said through clenched teeth

"Well given the circumstances Hades was one of the main suspects." Annabeth shrugged

Nico opened his mouth obviously prepared to argue than sighed and said "You're right."

**A scrap of aluminum dribbled out of Grover's mouth. "Whoa, wait. Wh-what?"**

Everyone held back laughter at this

**"A Fury came after Percy," Chiron reminded him. "She watched the young man until she was sure of his identity, then tried to kill him. Furies obey only one lord: Hades."**

**"Yes, but—but Hades hates **_**all **_**heroes," Grover pro tested. "Especially if he has found out Percy is a son of Poseidon..."**

"He's right Hades does hate you." Annabeth confirmed shrugging

"Thanks that makes me feel so much better." Percy muttered

**"A hellhound got into the forest," Chiron continued.**

**"Those can only be summoned from the Fields of Punishment, and it had to be summoned by someone within the camp. Hades must have a spy here. He must suspect Poseidon will try to use Percy to clear his name. Hades would very much like to kill this young half-blood before he can take on the quest."**

**"Great," I muttered. "That's two major gods who want to kill me."**

"You've made so much progress over the years now at least 5 gods want to kill you and not even mentioning the titans." Annabeth smiled worriedly at Percy

**"But a quest to ..." Grover swallowed. "I mean, couldn't the master bolt be in some place like Maine? Maine's very nice this time of year."**

"Wimp." Clarisse snorted, causing Grover to flush

"He is not a wimp!" Annabeth argued

"He is the bravest satyr you'll ever meet." Percy said and everyone agreed causing Grover to turn even redder

**"Hades sent a minion to steal the master bolt," Chiron insisted. "He hid it in the Underworld, knowing full well that Zeus would blame Poseidon.** **I don't pretend to under stand the Lord of the Dead's motives perfectly, or why he chose this time to start a war, but one thing is certain. Percy must go to the Underworld, find the master bolt, and reveal the truth."**

Nico got angrier after hearing this, his father was probably a jerk but that didn't give other people the right to blame him for everything bad that happened

"Why didn't Zeus suspect Hades or even Kronos, why Poseidon?" Rachel asked

"Who knows how a god's mind works." Annabeth said

**A strange fire burned in my stomach. The weirdest thing was: it wasn't fear. It was anticipation. The desire for revenge. Hades had tried to kill me three times so far, with the Fury, the Minotaur, and the hellhound. It was his fault my mother had disappeared in a flash of light. Now he was trying to frame me and my dad for a theft we hadn't committed.**

**I was ready to take him on.**

Everyone stared at Percy with the 'are you insane look?' before all bursting into laughter

"Yeah right like you could take on a big three, shrimp." Clarisse laughed

**Besides, if my mother was in the Underworld…**

**Whoa, boy, said the small part of my brain that was still sane. You're a kid. Hades is a god.**

Annabeth looked like she was about to burst with joy "I didn't even know you had that part of your brain." Annabeth pretended to wipe tears away

Thalia sniffed before twitching again "Damn its back." She twitched

**Grover was trembling. He'd started eating pinochle cards like potato chips.**

**The poor guy needed to complete a quest with me so he could get his searcher's license, whatever that was, but how could I ask him to do this quest, especially when the Oracle said I was destined to fail? This was suicide.**

"You've done a lot worst stuff than this over the years, and next year you're suppose to turn 16 and defeat the titan lord." Thalia chirped brightly obviously not seeing anything wrong with what she just said

**"Look, if we know it's Hades," I told Chiron, "why can't we just tell the other gods? Zeus or Poseidon could go down to the Underworld and bust some heads."**

"Bust some heads? We're trying to avoid a violent and bloody war, not make a worst!" Annabeth flicked Percy on the head

**"Suspecting and knowing are not the same," Chiron said. "Besides, even if the other gods suspect Hades—and I imagine Poseidon does—they couldn't retrieve the bolt themselves. Gods cannot cross each other's territories except by invitation. That is another ancient rule. Heroes, on the other hand, have certain privileges. They can go anywhere, challenge anyone, as long as they're bold enough and strong enough to do it.**

"And stupid enough." "And smart enough." Annabeth and Percy said at the same time before looking at each other with funny looks

**No god can be held responsible for a hero's actions. Why do you think the gods always operate through humans?"**

**"You're saying I'm being used."**

"Like a nasty, stinky old toothbrush." Nico said ignoring everybody's disgusted looks

**"I'm saying it's no accident Poseidon has claimed you now. It's a very risky gamble, but he's in a desperate situation. He needs you."**

**My dad needs me.**

Thalia bit the inside of her cheeks to avoid making a comment while twitching again

"You know you want to Thalia might as well just toss the bet out of the window." Percy smirked

**Emotions rolled around inside me like bits of glass in a kaleidoscope. I didn't know whether to feel resentful or grateful or happy or angry. Poseidon had ignored me for twelve years. Now suddenly he needed me.**

"All of our immortal parents ignored us, its part of the rule I'm sure if you're dad could he would have been there for you." Annabeth comforted Percy

**I looked at Chiron. "You've known I was Poseidon's son all along, haven't you?"**

**"I had my suspicions. As I said ... I've spoken to the Oracle, too."**

**I got the feeling there was a lot he wasn't telling me about his prophecy, but I decided I couldn't worry about that right now. After all, I was holding back information too.**

**"So let me get this straight," I said. "I'm supposed go to the Underworld and confront the Lord of the Dead."**

**"Check," Chiron said.**

**"Find the most powerful weapon in the universe."**

**"Check."**

**"And get it back to Olympus before the summer solstice, in ten days."**

"Easy as pie." Thalia shrugged completely truthful

Annabeth, Percy, and Grover rolled their eyes at Thalia's arrogance

**"That's about right."**

**I looked at Grover, who gulped down the ace of hearts.**

**"Did I mention that Maine is very nice this time of year?" he asked weakly.**

"I want to visit Maine now." Nico sighed

"The weather is quite nice, and there are pretty little flowers everywhere." Grover sighed blissfully

**"You don't have to go," I told him. "I can't ask that of you."**

**"Oh..." He shifted his hooves. "No... it's just that satyrs and underground places... well..."**

**He took a deep breath, then stood, brushing the shredded cards and aluminum bits off his T-shirt. "You saved my life, Percy. If ... if you're serious about wanting me along, I won't let you down."**

Percy smiled at Grover "And you never will Goat Boy."

"I don't know if I should be happy or offended." Grover said thoughtfully

**I felt so relieved I wanted to cry,**

Nico, Thalia, the Stolls, Clarisse, Chris, Beckendorf were to busy falling on the floor laughing

The ones who weren't laughing at Percy's expense were either cooing him or making fun of him

**though I didn't think that would be very heroic.**

"Yeah you've never seen Hercules crying his eyes out." Beckendorf said

**Grover was the only friend I'd ever had for longer than a few months. I wasn't sure what good a satyr could do against the forces of the dead, but I felt better knowing he'd be with me.**

**"All the way, G-man." I turned to Chiron. "So where do we go? The Oracle just said to go west."**

**"The entrance to the Underworld is always in the west. It moves from age to age, just like Olympus. Right now, of course, it's in America."**

**"Where?"**

**Chiron looked surprised. "I thought that would be obvious enough. The entrance to the Underworld is in Los Angeles."**

**"Oh," I said. "Naturally. So we just get on a plane—"**

Annabeth slapped Percy across the head "Can't believe you just said that." She shook her head disappointed

"I didn't know alright and weren't you there?" Percy said gesturing at the book

"Yeah and I wanted to do that then." Annabeth muttered

**"No!" Grover shrieked. "Percy, what are you thinking? Have you ever been on a plane in your life?"**

**I shook my head, feeling embarrassed.**

"There's nothing to be embarrassed about." Silena told Percy "You're mother was protecting you."

**My mom had never taken me anywhere by plane. She'd always said we didn't have the money. Besides, her parents had died in a plane crash.**

**"Percy, think," Chiron said. "You are the son of the Sea God. Your father's bitterest rival is Zeus, Lord of the Sky. Your mother knew better than to trust you in an airplane. You would be in Zeus's domain. You would never come down again alive."**

**Overhead, lightning crackled. Thunder boomed.**

"Zeus agrees." Nico said raising his eyes brows

**"Okay," I said, determined not to look at the storm. "So, Iihl travel overland."**

**"That's right," Chiron said. "Two companions may accompany you. Grover is one. The other has already volunteered, if you will accept her help."**

**"Gee," I said, feigning surprise. "Who else would be stupid enough to volunteer for a quest like this?"**

"Be careful who you're calling stupid Seaweed Brain." Annabeth teased

"It's about time you showed up; this chapter was dull without you." Percy said

**The air shimmered behind Chiron.**

**Annabeth became visible, stuffing her Yankees cap into her back pocket.**

**"I've been waiting a long time for a quest, Seaweed Brain," ****she said. "Athena is no fan of Poseidon,** **but if you're going to save the world, I'm the best person to keep you from messing up."**

"How sweet." Silena cooed

"So this is how the friendship that makes everyone doubt the meaning of the word friendship began." Beckendorf said raising his eyebrows

**"If you do say so yourself," I said. "I suppose you have a plan, Wise Girl?"**

**Her cheeks colored. "Do you want my help or not?"**

**The truth was, I did. I needed all the help I could get.**

Thalia twitched again

**"A trio," I said. "That'll work."**

**"Excellent," Chiron said. "This afternoon, we can take you as far as the bus terminal in Manhattan. After that, you are on your own."**

**Lightning flashed. Rain poured down on the meadows that were never supposed to have violent weather.**

**"No time to waste," Chiron said. "I think you should all get packing."**

"And end of the chapter." Beckendorf said

"Ready to lose Percy?" Thalia smirked "One more chapter to go."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that." Percy smirked back

"I'll read." Silena said before a fight could break out about who was going to win the bet

**Author's Note:** **Please tell me who you want to win the bet, Percy or Thalia.** **The bet is that Thalia cannot use any sarcasm or insult Percy, if she wins Percy gets a little makeover and he has to call Athena and tell her that he and Annabeth went to Las Vegas to get married, if she loses Silena gets to give her a makeover however she wants and she has to sing or reenact any song or movie of Percy's choice. Pl****ease review, remember suggestions are always welcome. **

**I have a poll on my profile ****so please vote for which character you want me to add to my story and they will be added a few chapters from now.**

**Anime Princess: I completely forgot that I even wrote that so thanks for pointing it out (you were the only one who noticed) and I will fix it as soon as this chapter is up. Thank you. **


	12. I Ruin a Perfectly Good Bus

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson or any of its awesome characters**

**Please review, you'll be making a girl's day if you do**

**Chapter 10**

"**I Ruin a Perfectly Good Bus"**

"**I Ruin a Perfectly Good Bus," **Silena read

"Jerk," Nico said "Do you know how many people rely on public transportation?" he raised his eyebrows

"Buses are evil." Thalia muttered, not having been a fan of buses ever since she almost drove the sun into England

**It didn't take me long to pack. I decided to leave the Minotaur horn in my cabin, which left me only an extra change of clothes and a toothbrush to stuff in a backpack Grover had found for me.**

**The camp store loaned me one hundred dollars in mortal money and twenty golden drachmas.**

"Did we ever pay them back?" Percy whispered to Annabeth

"Took care of it." She smirked

**These coins were as big as Girl Scout cookies and had images of various Greek gods stamped on one side and the Empire State Building on the other. The ancient mortal drachmas had been silver, Chiron told us, but Olympians never used less than pure gold.**

Connor whimpered at this "Pure gold, they use nothing but pure gold but my dad won't give me 5 bucks."

**Chiron said the coins might come in handy for non-mortal transactions—whatever that meant.**

"You know it would have been nice if Chiron would have just handed us some drachmas and told us you're going to need these to get into the underworld." Percy muttered

**He gave Annabeth and me each a canteen of nectar and a Ziploc bag full of ambrosia squares, to be used only in emergencies, if we were seriously hurt. It was god food, Chiron reminded us. It would cure us of almost any injury, but it was lethal to mortals. Too much of it would make a half-blood very, very feverish. An overdose would burn us up, literally.**

"Why would you eat something that could kill you?" Rachel questioned

"Because most of us are smart enough to eat just the right amount so we heal but we don't die." Annabeth explained

"It still doesn't make sense." Rachel muttered

**Annabeth was bringing her magic Yankees cap, which she told me had been a twelfth-birthday present from her mom. **

"No fair!" Connor whined loudly "For my twelfth birthday all my mom got me was a stupid pair of pants, and not even the good kind!"

**She carried a book on famous classical architecture, written in Ancient Greek, to read when she got bored, and a long bronze knife, hidden in her shirt sleeve. **

**I was sure the knife would get us busted the first time we went through a metal detector.**

Everybody sighed loudly

"Gods Percy! The mist." Annabeth looked at Percy clenching her fist

"No one explained anything to me." Percy muttered

"See, this is what the orientation film is used for." Chris laughed

**Grover wore his fake feet and his pants to pass as human. He wore a green rasta-style cap, because when it rained his curly hair flattened and you could just see the tips of his horns. His bright orange backpack was full of scrap metal and apples to snack on. In his pocket was a set of reed pipes his daddy goat had carved for him, even though he only knew two songs: Mozart's Piano Concerto no. 12 and Hilary Duff's "So Yesterday," both of which sounded pretty bad on reed pipes.**

Grover's mouth drop as he heard this "Excuse me?" he said to Percy

"Don't be offended, both of these sound pretty bad normally." Percy told Grover

**We waved good-bye to the other campers, took one last look at the strawberry fields, the ocean, and the Big House, then hiked up Half-Blood Hill to the tall pine tree that used to be Thalia, daughter of Zeus.**

Thalia closed her eyes at this before opening them to find everyone looking at her sadly

**Chiron was waiting for us in his wheelchair. Next to him stood the surfer dude I'd seen when I was recovering in the sick room. According to Grover, the guy was the camp's head of security. He supposedly had eyes all over his body so he could never be surprised. Today, though, he was wearing a chauffeur's uniform, so I could only see extra peepers on his hands, face and neck.**

**"This is Argus," Chiron told me. "He will drive you into the city, and, er, well, keep an eye on things."**

Connor and Travis stared at the book with one raised eyebrow "Worst pun_ever._" They snickered before looking at each other and laughing there heads off

**I heard footsteps behind us.**

**Luke came running up the hill, carrying a pair of basketball shoes.**

Percy, Annabeth, and Grover glared at the book

"Stupid shoes." Grover muttered

**"Hey!" he panted. "Glad I caught you."**

**Annabeth blushed, the way she always did when Luke was around.**

Annabeth raised an eyebrow at this "Did not." She muttered childishly

"Annie has a crush on-" Travis began only to be cut off by a knife missing his face by only a few centimeters

"Bloody hell!" Travis yelled grasping his face to make sure he wasn't missing any important facial features

**"Just wanted to say good luck," Luke told me. "And I thought ... um, maybe you could use these."**

**He handed me the sneakers, which looked pretty normal. They even smelled kind of normal.**

Silena looked at Percy with a disgusted face "Why on earth would you smell them?" she hissed

"They were right under my nose it's kind of hard not to smell them." Percy muttered as everyone else laughed at his awkwardness

**Luke said, **_**"Maia!"**_

**White bird's wings sprouted out of the heels, startling me so much, I dropped them. The shoes flapped around on the ground until the wings folded up and disappeared.**

**"Awesome!" Grover said.**

Nico nodded in agreement, causing everyone in the room to look at him "What, it is."

**Luke smiled. "Those served me well when I was on my quest. Gift from Dad. Of course, I don't use them much these days..." His expression turned sad.**

**I didn't know what to say. It was cool enough that Luke had come to say good-bye. I'd been afraid he might resent me for getting so much attention the last few days. But here he was giving me a magic gift... It made me blush almost as much as Annabeth.**

"Wow." Beckendorf said with wide eyes "You must have been the color of a tomato than."

Annabeth narrowed her eyes at Beckendorf, who ducked behind a chair even though he was almost 2 times Annabeth's size he knew better than to mess with Annabeth.

**"Hey, man," I said. "Thanks."**

**"Listen, Percy ..." Luke looked uncomfortable. "A lot of hopes are riding on you. So just ... kill some monsters for me, okay?"**

**We shook hands. Luke patted Grover's head between his horns, then gave a good-bye hug to Annabeth, who looked like she might pass out.**

Everyone in the room snickered, some louder than others.

**After Luke was gone, I told her, "You're hyperventilating."**

**"Am not."**

**"You let him capture the flag instead of you, didn't you?"**

**"Oh ... why do I want to go anywhere with you, Percy?"**

Thalia pouted at Annabeth "I thought you were on my side."

"I can't control what I say in a book." Annabeth said half annoyed, half amused

"Saying something Thalia." Percy smirked in her direction, Thalia simply smiled and shook her head wiping the smirk right off of Percy's face

**She stomped down the other side of the hill, where a white SUV waited on the shoulder of the road. Argus followed, jingling his car keys.**

**I picked up the flying shoes and had a sudden bad feeling. I looked at Chiron. "I won't be able to use these, will I?"**

"No." Nico stated bluntly looking at Percy out of the corner of his eye

**He shook his head. "Luke meant well, Percy. But taking to the air ... that would not be wise for you."**

"Being the son of Poseidon and all." Silena added

**I nodded, disappointed, but then I got an idea. "Hey, Grover. You want a magic item?"**

"Thanks a lot Percy." Grover muttered

"How was I suppose to know the shoes were magically charmed to drag the person wearing it into the black pit thingy." Percy said

**His eyes lit up. "Me?"**

Thalia made a noise in the back of her throat that sounded like a dying rat "Can't wait until I win this bet." She muttered while Percy stared at her astonished

"How are you so sure you are going to win?" Percy asked suspiciously

"Because I have a strategy." Thalia gave Percy her famous smirk

**Pretty soon we'd laced the sneakers over his fake feet, and the world's first flying goat boy was ready for launch.**

"How do you expect me to win, when he thinks of stupid comments like that?" Thalia hissed to herself

_**"Maia!" **_**he shouted.**

**He got off the ground okay, but then fell over sideways so his backpack dragged through the grass. The winged shoes kept bucking up and down like tiny broncos.**

"Tiny broncos." Annabeth muttered "Amazing he knows how to use broncos properly in a sentence but he can't tell the difference between Chiron and Charon."

**"Practice," Chiron called after him. "You just need practice!"**

**"Aaaaa!" Grover went flying sideways down the hill like a possessed lawn mower, heading toward the van.**

**Before I could follow, Chiron caught my arm. "I should have trained you better, Percy," he said. "If only I had more time. Hercules, Jason—they all got more training."**

"Thanks for reminding me Chiron." Percy being the pessimist that he was said

"You don't need training, you have good reflexes that's all you need to stay alive." Thalia waved her hand dismiss fully

**"That's okay. I just wish—"**

**I stopped myself because I was about to sound like a brat. I was wishing my dad had given me a cool magic item to help on the quest, something as good as Luke's flying shoes, or Annabeth's invisible cap.**

**"What am I thinking?" Chiron cried. "I can't let you get away without this."**

**He pulled a pen from his coat pocket and handed it to me. It was an ordinary disposable ballpoint, black ink, removable cap. Probably cost thirty cents.**

**"Gee," I said. "Thanks."**

Rachel whacked Percy in the head "Don't be so ungrateful!" she scolded

Annabeth couldn't help but hiss softly and sank lower into her fluffy couch.

**"Percy, that's a gift from your father. I've kept it for years, not knowing you were who I was waiting for. But the prophecy is clear to me now. You are the one."**

**I remembered the field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, when I'd vaporized Mrs. Dodds. Chiron had thrown me a pen that turned into a sword. Could this be ... ?**

Thalia rolled her eyes

"Want to say something cus?" Percy said innocently

Thalia gritted her teeth "Is this even allowed, tempting me to say something, I mean?"

"The rule only said you couldn't insult me or be sarcastic until the end of this chapter." Percy smile lopsidedly

**I took off the cap, and the pen grew longer and heavier in my hand. In half a second, I held a shimmering bronze sword with a double-edged blade, a leather-wrapped grip, and a flat hilt riveted with gold studs. It was the first weapon that actually felt balanced in my hand.**

**"The sword has a long and tragic history that we need not go into," Chiron told me. **

"But I love long and tragic histories." Travis pouted earning him punches from the females in the room

**"Its name is Anaklusmos."**

**"'Riptide,'" I translated, surprised the Ancient Greek came so easily.**

"Well it _is_ hardwired in your brain." Annabeth smirked at Percy as if she knew something he didn't, so basically she just looked at him the way she always did

**"Use it only for emergencies," Chiron said, "and only against monsters. No hero should harm mortals unless absolutely necessary, of course, but this sword wouldn't harm them in any case."**

**I looked at the wickedly sharp blade. "What do you mean it wouldn't harm mortals?" How could it not?"**

"Here comes a long boring explanation." Clarisse muttered

"That's why I use stygian iron." Nico said proudly

Annabeth stared at him horrified "You want to harm mortals?"

"No! That's not what I meant, I just meant that if the time needed-wait no I didn't mean it like that either-what I'm trying to say is…you know what Silena just read." Nico muttered turning beat red

**"The sword is celestial bronze. Forged by the Cyclopes, tempered in the heart of Mount Etna, cooled in the River Lethe. It's deadly to monsters, to any creature from the Underworld, provided they don't kill you first. But the blade will pass through mortals like an illusion. They simply are not important enough for the blade to kill. **

"Wow that was insulting." Rachel said an offended look on her face

"Get over it, at least you know you're safe from our weapons." Clarisse rolled her eyes

**And I should warn you: as a demigod, you can be killed by either celestial or normal weapons. You are **_**twice **_**as vulnerable."**

"Wow, Chiron really needs a lesson on how to give people pep talks, even I can do better than this." Nico said with wide eyes

**"Good to know."**

**"Now recap the pen."**

**I touched the pen cap to the sword tip and instantly Riptide shrank to a ballpoint pen again. I tucked it in my pocket, a little nervous, because I was famous for losing pens at school.**

"You can get famous from losing…pens." Nico said in disbelief as if to say what has the world come to

"It's just an expression." Rachel told him

"Oh…I knew that." He blushed

**"You can't," Chiron said.**

**"Can't what?"**

**"Lose the pen," he said. ****"It is enchanted. It will always reappear in your pocket. Try it."**

"Oh cool, pony can read minds." Tyson said clapping his hands in delight, and he looked so happy that no one had the heart to break it to him that Chiron was just old not a mind reader

**I was wary, but I threw the pen as far as I could down the hill and watched it disappear in the grass.**

"It would have been upsetting if it didn't come back." Beckendorf said thinking about how sad it would be to lose a weapon as beautiful as that

**"It may take a few moments," Chiron told me. "Now check your pocket."**

**Sure enough, the pen was there.**

Connor and Travis both snickered before wiggling their fingers "Magic." They said in hushed tones

**"Okay, that's **_**extremely **_**cool," I admitted. "But what if a mortal sees me pulling out a sword?"**

Thalia squeezed her eyes shut and counted to ten in a whisper.

Percy snorted loudly "That's your brilliant plan? Counting to 10?" he said half in disbelief, half astounded

"It's working isn't it?" Thalia smirked, needless to say that shut Percy right up

**Chiron smiled. "Mist is a powerful thing, Percy."**

**"Mist?"**

Nico sighed in annoyance "Another explanation?"

**"Yes. Read **_**The Iliad. **_**It's full of references to the stuff. Whenever divine or monstrous elements mix with the mortal world, they generate Mist, which obscures the vision of humans. **

**You will see things just as they are, being a half-blood, but humans will interpret things quite differently. Remarkable, really, the lengths to which humans will go to fit things into their version of reality."**

"Too summarize all of that, basically mortal will believe anything…but the truth." Annabeth said

**I put Riptide back in my pocket.**

**For the first time, the quest felt real. I was actually leaving Half-Blood Hill. I was heading west with no adult supervision, no backup plan, not even a cell phone. (Chiron said cell phones were traceable by monsters; if we used one, it would be worse than sending up a flare.) I had no weapon stronger than a sword to fight off monsters and reach the Land of the Dead.**

"Aren't you just a ray of sunshine?" Grover smiled weakly

**"Chiron ..." I said. "When you say the gods are immortal... I mean, there was a time **_**before **_**them, right?"**

"Stop asking stupid questions, and just get on with blowing up public transportation!" Clarisse yelled waving her arms up and down

**"Four ages before them, actually. The Time of the Titans was the Fourth Age, sometimes called the Golden Age, **

"More like the evil ages." Grover said

"Why is it called the golden age?" Rachel wondered

"Oh you know…reasons." Annabeth said dismissing her question

**which is definitely a misnomer. This, the time of Western civilization and the rule of Zeus, is the Fifth Age."**

**"So what was it like ... before the gods?"**

**Chiron pursed his lips. "Even I am not old enough to remember that, child, but I know it was a time of darkness and savagery for mortals. Kronos, the lord of the Titans, called his reign the Golden Age because men lived innocent and free of all knowledge. But that was mere propaganda. The Titan king cared nothing for your kind except as appetizers or a source of cheap entertainment. It was only in the early reign of Lord Zeus, when Prometheus the good Titan brought fire to mankind, **

**that your species began to progress, and even then Prometheus was branded a radical thinker. Zeus punished him severely, as you may recall. Of course, eventually the gods warmed to humans, and Western civilization was born."**

**"But the gods can't die now, right? I mean, as long as Western civilization is alive, they're alive. So ... even if I failed, nothing could happen so bad it would mess up **_**every thing, **_**right?"**

**Chiron gave me a melancholy smile. "No one knows how long the Age of the West will last, Percy. The gods are immortal, yes. But then, so were the Titans. **_**They **_**still exist, locked away in their various prisons, forced to endure end less pain and punishment, reduced in power, but still very much alive. May the Fates forbid that the gods should ever suffer such a doom, or that we should ever return to the darkness and chaos of the past. All we can do, child, is follow our destiny."**

**"Our destiny ... assuming we know what that is."**

**"Relax," Chiron told me. "Keep a clear head. And remember, you may be about to prevent the biggest war in human history."**

"Well doesn't that just make you feel relaxed?" Nico smiled grimly as if remembering something

**"Relax," I said. "I'm very relaxed."**

"Of course why wouldn't I be relaxed after Chiron just told me, I might be the cause of one of the greatest wars in history?" Percy said his voice literally dripping with sarcasm

**When I got to the bottom of the hill, I looked back. Under the pine tree that used to be Thalia, daughter of Zeus, Chiron was now standing in full horse-man form, holding his bow high in salute. Just your typical summer-camp send-off by your typical centaur.**

"Uh…" Everyone in the room stated not knowing how to comment for that

**Argus drove us out of the countryside and into western Long Island. It felt weird to be on a highway again, Annabeth and Grover sitting next to me as if we were normal carpoolers. After two weeks at Half-Blood Hill, the real world seemed like a fantasy. I found myself staring at every McDonald's, every kid in the back of his parents' car, every billboard and shopping mall.**

Annabeth rolled her eyes, and he wonder why I call him Seaweed brain, she thought.

"I could really use a Happy Meal right now." Nico said staring of into space

**"So far so good," I told Annabeth. "Ten miles and not a single monster."**

"You jinxed us!" Grover yelled practically having a nervous break down

**She gave me an irritated look. "It's bad luck to talk that way, seaweed brain."**

"Having a lovers spat?" Connor muttered only to shriek as a knife was pressed against his neck

"What were you saying?" Annabeth asked innocently

"Nothing, nothing, please don't kill me." Connor whimpered

**"Remind me again—why do you hate me so much?"**

**"I don't hate you."**

**"Could've fooled me."**

**She folded her cap of invisibility. "Look ... we're just not supposed to get along, okay? Our parents are rivals."**

**"Why?"**

**She sighed. "How many reasons do you want? One time my mom caught Poseidon with his girlfriend in Athena's temple, which is **_**hugely **_**disrespectful. **

Percy, Annabeth, and Grover shivered at the memory of Poseidon's girlfriend.

"I can't believe your father was ever involved with that." Annabeth spat

"He was probably blind, or very, very, very, very, very, very lonely." Percy reasoned

**Another time, Athena and Poseidon competed to be the patron god for the city of Athens. Your dad created some stupid saltwater spring for his gift.**

"Why a saltwater spring, they can't use that?" Chris asked

"Read Silena." Percy said through his clench teeth, as Annabeth smirked with a superior look on her face

**My mom created the olive tree. The people saw that her gift was better, so they named the city after her."**

**"They must really like olives."**

Everyone chuckled at this, only Percy would say that.

**"Oh, forget it."**

**"Now, if she'd invented pizza—**_**that **_**I could understand."**

"Mmn, pizza grown on trees." Nico rubbed his chin as if he had a brilliant plan

"It's not going to work Nico." Rachel sighed

"Fine! Crush mine and every guy's dream if that's what you want." Nico huffed

**"I said, forget it!"**

**In the front seat, Argus smiled. He didn't say anything, but one blue eye on the back of his neck winked at me.**

Thalia bit the inside of her cheeks to keep herself from saying anything at this.

**Traffic slowed us down in Queens. By the time we got into Manhattan it was sunset and starting to rain.**

"Rain, rain go away." Tyson hummed happily

**Argus dropped us at the Greyhound Station on the Upper East Side, not far from my mom and Gabe's apartment. Taped to a mailbox was a soggy flyer with my picture on it: HAVE YOU SEEN THIS BOY?**

**I ripped it down before Annabeth and Grover could notice. **

Everyone looked at Percy sadly, Grover and Annabeth sighed "We noticed."

**Argus unloaded our bags, made sure we got our bus tickets, then drove away, the eye on the back of his hand opening to watch us as he pulled out of the parking lot.**

"That's extremely creepy." Rachel said

**I thought about how close I was to my old apartment. On a normal day, my mom would be home from the candy store by now. Smelly Gabe was probably up there right now, playing poker, not even missing her.**

Everyone stared at the book loathingly

"Hate that man so much." Annabeth hissed

**Grover shouldered his backpack. He gazed down the street in the direction I was looking. "You want to know why she married him, Percy?"**

A few halfbloods sat up straighter for this, interested "why did Sally marry the walrus?" they all thought

**I stared at him. "Were you reading my mind or some thing?"**

**"Just your emotions." He shrugged. **

"You said that like it was nothing." Rachel said raising her eyebrows

Grover simply shrugged "All satyrs can do that, it's really not that important."

**"Guess I forgot to tell you satyrs can do that. You were thinking about your mom and your stepdad, right?"**

**I nodded, wondering what else Grover might've forgotten to tell me.**

"Well I was trying to complete my life long dream of finding Pan." Grover said

**"Your mom married Gabe for **_**you," **_**Grover told me. "You call him 'Smelly,' but you've got no idea. The guy has this aura…. Yuck. I can smell him from here. I can smell traces of him on you, and you haven't been near him for a week."**

"That's-that's so sweet…and disgusting." Silena added in the last part in disgust

"I need to meet your mom, if she's willing to marry an elephant for you, than she has to be willing to bake me cookies." Travis went all starry eye at the word cookies

"You're thinking about cookies?" Silena hissed

"Why is that wrong?" Travis muttered sheepishly

**"Thanks," I said. "Where's the nearest shower?"**

Annabeth smiled slightly at this

**"You should be grateful, Percy. Your stepfather smells so repulsively human he could mask the presence of any demigod. As soon as I took a whiff inside his Camaro, I knew: Gabe has been covering your scent for years. If you hadn't lived with him every summer, you probably would've been found by monsters a long time ago. **

"Amazing, how one man's stink can protect someone for so long." Nico muttered shrugging

**Your mom stayed with him to protect you. She was a smart lady. She must've loved you a lot to put up with that guy—if that makes you feel any better."**

"How was that suppose to make me feel better? My mother had been protecting me all my life and the one time I was suppose to protect her, I failed." Percy put his hands over his face and sighed

Grover patted him on the should hesitantly

"You saved the world, you protected everybody." Annabeth whispered into his ear

**It didn't, but I forced myself not to show it. **

**I'll see her again, I thought. She isn't gone.**

**I wondered if Grover could still read my emotions, mixed up as they were. I was glad he and Annabeth were with me, but I felt guilty that I hadn't been straight with them. I hadn't told them the real reason I'd said yes to this crazy quest.**

"I think we all knew why you signed up for this quest." Annabeth rolled her eyes

**The truth was, I didn't care about retrieving Zeus's lightning bolt, or saving the world, or even helping my father out of trouble. The more I thought about it, I resented Poseidon for never visiting me, never helping my mom, never even sending a lousy child-support check. He'd only claimed me because he needed a job done.**

Every halfblood in the room couldn't help but feel that way.

**All I cared about was my mom. Hades had taken her unfairly, and Hades was going to give her back.**

_**You will be betrayed by one who calls you a friend, **_**the Oracle whispered in my mind. **_**You will fail to save what matters most in the end.**_

_**Shut up, **_**I told it.**

Thalia stared at Percy as if he just grew another head "Talking to yourself is never a good thing." She sang

"I talk to myself sometimes when I get lonely." Nico mumbled, and everyone in the room quickly made a plan on when they were going to talk to the kid

**The rain kept coming down.**

**We got restless waiting for the bus and decided to play some Hacky Sack with one of Grover's apples. Annabeth was unbelievable. **

Silena squealed so loud that everyone in the room put their hands over their ears to keep their eardrums from bleeding "How cute! Even at this age you believe she's amazing!"

"I never said she was amazing!" Percy feeling his blood rush up into his cheeks

**She could bounce the apple off her knee, her elbow, her shoulder, whatever. I wasn't too bad myself.**

"And there comes the Seaweed for brains arrogance." Nico chuckled

**The game ended when I tossed the apple toward Grover and it got too close to his mouth. In one mega goat bite, our Hacky Sack disappeared—core, stem, and all.**

**Grover blushed. He tried to apologize, but Annabeth and I were too busy cracking up.**

Just like what the real Annabeth and Percy were doing right now, they were literally leaning on each other while laughing their heads off remembering Grover's face.

Grover blushed "It wasn't that funny!"

**Finally the bus came. As we stood in line to board, Grover started looking around, sniffing the air like he smelled his favorite school cafeteria delicacy—enchiladas.**

"The only difference this was a bad smell." Grover muttered covering his nose as if remembering the smell

Everyone tensed at this 'monster' they all thought at the same time.

**"What is it?" I asked.**

**"I don't know," he said tensely. "Maybe it's nothing."**

**But I could tell it wasn't nothing. I started looking over my shoulder, too.**

**I was relieved when we finally got on board and found seats together in the back of the bus. We stowed our back packs. Annabeth kept slapping her Yankees cap nervously against her thigh.**

**As the last passengers got on, Annabeth clamped her hand onto my knee. **

No one in the room really knew how to respond to that "PDA." Connor laughed

"There was a monster you idiot." Annabeth slapped him in the arm

**"Percy."**

**An old lady had just boarded the bus. She wore a crumpled velvet dress, lace gloves, and a shapeless orange-knit hat that shadowed her face, and she carried a big paisley purse. When she tilted her head up, her black eyes glittered, and my heart skipped a beat.**

**It was Mrs. Dodds. Older, more withered, but definitely the same evil face.**

**I scrunched down in my seat.**

**Behind her came two more old ladies: one in a green hat, one in a purple hat. Otherwise they looked exactly like Mrs. Dodds—same gnarled hands, paisley handbags, wrinkled velvet dresses. Triplet demon grandmothers.**

Everyone in the room gasped "My gods, three furies at the same time how did you survive?" Thalia muttered trying to keep herself from having a heart attack

**They sat in the front row, right behind the driver. The two on the aisle crossed their legs over the walkway, making an X. It was casual enough, but it sent a clear message: nobody leaves.**

Any humor that was still in the room left right at this

**The bus pulled out of the station, and we headed through the slick streets of Manhattan. "She didn't stay dead long," I said, trying to keep my voice from quivering. "I thought you said they could be dispelled for a lifetime."**

**"I said if you're **_**lucky**_**," Annabeth said. "You're obviously not."**

"Gods why do you have to have such bad luck Seaweed Brain." Annabeth muttered, and Percy attempted to smile weakly at her

**"All three of them," Grover whimpered. **_**"Di immortales!"**_

Travis and Connor laughed weakly at this, most of the time they would have made some annoying comment about the language Grover had just used but even they didn't have the heart to do that

**"It's okay," Annabeth said, obviously thinking hard. "The Furies. The three worst monsters from the Underworld. No problem. No problem. We'll just slip out the windows."**

**"They don't open," Grover moaned.**

**"A back exit?" she suggested.**

**There wasn't one. Even if there had been, it wouldn't have helped. By that time, we were on Ninth Avenue, heading for the Lincoln Tunnel.**

**"They won't attack us with witnesses around," I said. "Will they?"**

"This is one of those times where the mist is a terrible thing." Thalia muttered

**"Mortals don't have good eyes," Annabeth reminded me. "Their brains can only process what they see through the Mist."**

**"They'll see three old ladies killing us, won't they?"**

"With your luck they'll see the three old ladies trying to give you flowers and you assaulting them." Thalia hissed weakly

"My luck does suck." Percy muttered

**She thought about it. "Hard to say. But we can't count on mortals for help. Maybe an emergency exit in the roof ...?"**

**We hit the Lincoln Tunnel, and the bus went dark except for the running lights down the aisle. It was eerily quiet without the sound of the rain.**

**Mrs. Dodds got up. In a flat voice, as if she'd rehearsed it, she announced to the whole bus: "I need to use the rest-room."**

**"So do I," said the second sister.**

**"So do I," said the third sister.**

"No one noticed that three old ladies who were probably around at the time the declaration of independence was signed just all got up at the same time and announced to everyone that they needed to go to the bathroom?" Rachel asked bewildered

"The furies were around way before the declaration of independence." Nico replied

**They all started coming down the aisle.**

**"I've got it," Annabeth said. "Percy, take my hat."**

**"What?"**

**"You're the one they want. Turn invisible and go up the aisle. Let them pass you. Maybe you can get to the front and get away."**

"He's not going to leave you guys." Thalia said surely

"I know, damn his fatal flaw." Annabeth muttered

**"But you guys—"**

**"There's an outside chance they might not notice us," Annabeth said. "You're a son of one of the Big Three. Your smell might be overpowering."**

**"I can't just leave you."**

**"Don't worry about us," Grover said. "Go!"**

**My hands trembled. I felt like a coward, but I took the Yankees cap and put it on.**

**When I looked down, my body wasn't there anymore.**

**I started creeping up the aisle. I managed to get up ten rows, then duck into an empty seat just as the Furies walked past.**

**Mrs. Dodds stopped, sniffing, and looked straight at me. My heart was pounding.**

As was everyone else's in the room

**Apparently she didn't see anything. She and her sisters kept going.**

**I was free. I made it to the front of the bus. We were almost through the Lincoln Tunnel now. I was about to press the emergency stop button when I heard hideous wailing from the back row.**

**The old ladies were not old ladies anymore. Their faces were still the same—I guess those couldn't get any uglier— **

Nico snickered loudly "So true."

**but their bodies had shriveled into leathery brown hag bodies with bat's wings and hands and feet like gargoyle claws. Their handbags had turned into fiery whips.**

**The Furies surrounded Grover and Annabeth, lashing their whips, hissing: "Where is it? Where?"**

"It?" Nico questioned "Percy is a little weird but surely he's not an _it_."

"Coming from the boy who spends his weekends in graveyards trying to raise the dead, that scares me." Percy said hesitantly

**The other people on the bus were screaming, cowering in their seats. They saw **_**something, **_**all right.**

**"He's not here!" Annabeth yelled. "He's gone!"**

**The Furies raised their whips.**

Everyone in the room tensed

Thalia gritted her teeth "I swear to the gods if the furies hurt you I don't care how powerful they are I will hunt them down and I will drive an arrow into their faces!" she said to Annabeth

**Annabeth drew her bronze knife. Grover grabbed a tin can from his snack bag and prepared to throw it.**

Thalia tensed even more, tin cans against whips, the odds were not good.

**What I did next was so impulsive and dangerous I should've been named ADHD poster child of the year.**

"I don't think they have that, otherwise I am positive I would have won." Connor offered weakly, everyone choose to ignore him staring at the book

**The bus driver was distracted, trying to see what was going on in his rearview mirror.**

**Still invisible, I grabbed the wheel from him and jerked it to the left. Everybody howled as they were thrown to the right, and I heard what I hoped was the sound of three Furies smashing against the windows.**

**"Hey!" the driver yelled. "Hey—whoa!"**

**We wrestled for the wheel. The bus slammed against the side of the tunnel, grinding metal, throwing sparks a mile behind us.**

By this time everyone in the room was hyperventilating

"You know we're still alive." Percy pointed out

Everyone in the room visibly relaxed after hearing this having forgotten about that

**We careened out of the Lincoln Tunnel and back into the rainstorm, people and monsters tossed around the bus, cars plowed aside like bowling pins.**

**Somehow the driver found an exit. We shot off the highway, through half a dozen traffic lights, and ended up barreling down one of those New Jersey rural roads where you can't believe there's so much nothing right across the river from New York. There were woods to our left, the Hudson River to our right, and the driver seemed to be veering toward the river.**

**Another great idea: I hit the emergency brake.**

"You drive like me." Thalia muttered shuttering from the experience

**The bus wailed, spun a full circle on the wet asphalt, and crashed into the trees. The emergency lights came on. The door flew open. The bus driver was the first one out, the passengers yelling as they stampeded after him. I stepped into the driver's seat and let them pass.**

**The Furies regained their balance. They lashed their whips at Annabeth while she waved her knife and yelled in Ancient Greek, telling them to back off. Grover threw tin cans.**

"What's a tin can against fiery whips of doom?" asked Thalia in disbelief

"You'd be surprised those things hurt if they manage to hit you." Percy chuckled

**I looked at the open doorway. I was free to go, but I couldn't leave my friends. I took off the invisible cap. "Hey!"**

**The Furies turned, baring their yellow fangs at me, and the exit suddenly seemed like an excellent idea. Mrs. Dodds stalked up the aisle, just as she used to do in class, about to deliver my F- math test. Every time she flicked her whip, red flames danced along the barbed leather.**

"How come celestial bronze can't do that?" Chris sighed annoyed "We'd be much scarier if our weapons had flames wrapped around them."

**Her two ugly sisters hopped on top of the seats on either side of her and crawled toward me like huge nasty lizards.**

Everyone shuddered in disgust at the mental image that was just produced in their heads

**"Perseus Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said, in an accent that was definitely from somewhere farther south than Georgia. "You have offended the gods. You shall die."**

**"I liked you better as a math teacher," I told her.**

Connor and Travis sighed "Worst. Trash. Talker. _Ever_."

**She growled.**

**Annabeth and Grover moved up behind the Furies cautiously, looking for an opening.**

**I took the ballpoint pen out of my pocket and uncapped it. Riptide elongated into a shimmering double-edged sword.**

**The Furies hesitated.**

**Mrs. Dodds had felt Riptide's blade before. She obviously didn't like seeing it again.**

Percy smirked arrogantly

**"Submit now," she hissed. "And you will not suffer eternal torment."**

**"Nice try," I told her.**

**"Percy, look out!" Annabeth cried.**

**Mrs. Dodds lashed her whip around my sword hand while the Furies on the either side lunged at me.**

**My hand felt like it was wrapped in molten lead, but I managed not to drop Riptide. I stuck the Fury on the left with its hilt, sending her toppling backward into a seat. I turned and sliced the Fury on the right. As soon as the blade connected with her neck, she screamed and exploded into dust. Annabeth got Mrs. Dodds in a wrestler's hold and yanked her backward while Grover ripped the whip out of her hands.**

**"Ow!" he yelled. "Ow! Hot! Hot!"**

"It has fire radiating off it did you expect it to be cold?" Clarisse rolled her eyes

**The Fury I'd hilt-slammed came at me again, talons ready, but I swung Riptide and she broke open like a piñata.**

**Mrs. Dodds was trying to get Annabeth off her back. She kicked, clawed, hissed and bit, but Annabeth held on while Grover got Mrs. Dodd's legs tied up in her own whip. Finally they both shoved her backward into the aisle. Mrs. Dodds tried to get up, but she didn't have room to flap her bat wings, so she kept falling down.**

Everyone in the room had to pause to imagine that

**"Zeus will destroy you!" she promised. "Hades will have your soul!"**

"Ooo double threat." Chris shook his head

_**"Braccas meas vescimini!"**_** I yelled.**

**I wasn't sure where the Latin came from. **

**I think it meant "Eat my pants!"**

Everyone laughed at this, any tension that was still in the room was gone after this

**Thunder shook the bus. The hair rose on the back of my neck.**

**"Get out!" Annabeth yelled at me. "Now!" I didn't need any encouragement.**

**We rushed outside and found the other passengers wandering around in a daze, arguing with the driver, or running around in circles yelling, "We're going to die!" A Hawaiian-shirted tourist with a camera snapped my photograph before I could recap my sword.**

Percy cursed, things would have gone so much simpler if he had just recapped the sword

**"Our bags!" Grover realized. "We left our—"**

"No! Percy you idiot!" Thalia groaned

Percy's eyes widened had she just insulted him, does that mean he won the bet, before he could even announce it Silena continued to read.

_**BOOOOOM!**_

**The windows of the bus exploded as the passengers ran for cover. Lightning shredded a huge crater in the roof, but an angry wail from inside told me Mrs. Dodds was not yet dead.**

"You should probably run, she's calling reinforcements." Nico said

**"Run!" Annabeth said. "She's calling for reinforcements! We have to get out of here!"**

"That's it I can't hold it anymore! Percy is slow, he's mental, he talks to himself, is he brave-yes, is he stupid-also yes! Of course the whip was hot! No, in a battle we're going to fight with wooden swords against monster, of course we're using real weapons! You and a certain daughter of Athena have something for each other! I cannot hold it in any more!" Thalia shriek ripping her hair out and jumping up and down

Percy's face broke into a wide grin "Yes, Yes, Yes, I win! I don't have to get murdered by Athena!" Percy cheered

"Oh…I just lost the bet." Thalia sighed reality hitting her

"No! How could you, you just lost me my bet with Travis!" Connor shrieked

"What?" Percy asked bewildered

"You see Connor and I made a bet on who would win, Connor bet on Thalia and I bet on Percy, loser owes the winner 20 bucks, 5 drachmas, and they have to do whatever the loser of your bet has to do." Travis said happily

"So Connor has to get a makeover too?" Nico raised his eyebrows in amusement

"Yep, pretty much." Travis chirped

"I understand your pain buddy." Thalia muttered while Connor sobbed

"And you only had one more sentence to go." Silena sighed holding the book up

"Okay let's finish the chapter than Thalia and Connor gets her punishment." Percy smirked jumping up and down

**We plunged into the woods as the rain poured down, the bus in flames behind us, and nothing but darkness ahead.**

"Incredibly dramatic, I like it." Silena said closing the book shut "Come on, you guys get make over!" she squealed taking Thalia and Connor's hands

"No, help she's dragging us to the pit, it's so dark, help me!" Connor shrieked dramatically reaching a hand out

**Author's Note: Next chapter you will see the outcome of the bet, Thalia and Connor dressed up like Barbie dolls and singing or acting something of Percy's choice. Please review, suggestions are always welcome, you'll be making a girl's day if you review. **

**I have a poll on my profile ****so please vote for which character you want me to add to my story and they will be added a few chapters from now.**

**Tashwampa: I know Nico acts weird sometimes and you're definitely right one minute he is a 5 year old and than the next he's this creepy emo dude, so I'm definitely working on him. And Thalia it was so not my intentions to make her seem like a bitch but my friends like to pick on me like that, so I based her on one of my best friends so it was not my intention to make anyone detest her. Thanks for the suggestions!**


	13. We visit the Garden Gnome Emporium

**Disclaimer: I do not nor will I ever own Percy Jackson and any of its characters**

**Please, please review, I had to listen to the Barbie song to write this chapter, so prove to me that my torture was worth it.**

**Chapter Eleven**

"**We visit the Garden Gnome Emporium"**

"When are they coming back we've been sitting here for exactly 2 hours, 34 minutes, and 2 seconds, no wait 3 seconds, no 4 seconds, wa-" Travis whined, and yes he was counting

"We get it! They've been gone fore a very, very long time." Annabeth said

"That's it we can start without them." Percy said starting to reach for the book

"We're back!" Silena announced walking in with a little skip in her step

"Uh…so where are Thalia and Connor?" Nico asked trying to see if they were hiding behind Silena

"They're right here." Silena stepped aside to reveal Thalia and Connor

"Don't look at me, I'm hideous!" Thalia exclaimed trying to hide

Thalia was actually decent Silena had put her in a blue and green dress that looked Victorian styled, it covered every inch of her body with the exception of her face, the dress had ruffles and the sleeves made her arms look 2x its normal size. Her neck was covered with pink ruffles making it hard for her to breath. Her hair was styled into an elegant bun and on top of her head sat a white hat the size of a small whale. Her face was sparkly and powdered with white make up, her eyes resembled pandas as they were coated in eyeliner, and her lips were the color of blood. When she walked her dress lifted slightly revealing high heel shoes that had to be at least 6 inches in length at the minimum, just as everyone expected she walked about an inch and nearly fell to the ground if Percy hadn't caught her and steadied her.

"I hate you." Thalia said through her gritted teeth "I look like the end of a mop."

"No you don't. You look so pretty." Percy grinned obviously enjoying her torment

"How do you breathe in these things, I think my waist is being murdered." Thalia pulled at her dress taking in obnoxiously loud breaths

"Karma." Percy smirked

Everyone turned to look at Connor and what he was wearing could have made Thalia looked normal, yeah it was that bad. Unlike Thalia's dressed which covered nearly every inch of her body Connor's dress resembled something a stripper might wear. It was black and white and…short, the neckline reached his stomach in a V shape, his entire back was revealed, around his waist was a black belt and the dress was so short you could see his boxers underneath, the most terrible thing about the dress you may ask…it was skin tight. He was wearing black high heeled boots that reached his knees. His face was almost feminine, his eyelids were coated with purple and his eyelashes were 5x their normal size, his lips were a cherry pink color, worst part of all he actually looked…attractive, you know in a way a slut might look hot.

Travis's eyes widened "Connor?" he sputtered

"That's an ugly girl." Tyson frowned

"Hello Travey Poo! Don't I look hot?" Connor said striking a dramatic pose and lifting his leg up onto a chair with much difficulty

Some of the people in the room shrieked and covered their eyes; Rachel and Annabeth immediately slapped their hands over Nico's eyes while yelling at Connor

"Good job, Silena." Clarisse observed snickering

"Where did you even get the dresses?" Chris asked poking at one of Thalia's many ruffles

"Oh you know places." Silena waved her hand dismiss fully and slapped Chris hand

"Now, what song or act do you want us to do, O great one?" Thalia said rolling her eyes and squirming around in her dress

"I know, I know!" Connor said jumping up and down like he had to go to the bathroom, ignoring the screams of protest when his tissue of a dress started to slide up

"Yes Connor?" Percy asked trying to hide his laugh

"I want to do Barbie girl! I can be Barbie girl and Thalia can be Ken!" Connor squealed like a girl, ignoring Travis and Thalia's horrified expression

"No they're not suppose to enjoy this, they're suppose to suffer not us!" Travis said into Percy's ear

"Why not I'd think it'd be fun seeing Thalia as Ken." Annabeth said her lips twitching in amusement

"Barbie girl it is than, you both know it right?" Percy asked

"Yeah!" Connor sang

"Unfortunately." Thalia sighed

"Well go on and you have to do it right." Percy and everybody looked at Thalia

Thalia cleared her throat and sighed "Hi Barbie." She said in a deep voice erupting laughter across the room

"Hi Ken!" Connor shrieked in a usually high voice that should have been impossible

"Do you wanna go for a ride?" Thalia said  
>"Sure Ken!" Connor giggled batting his eyelashes and jumping up and down<br>"Jump In..." Thalia gestured at her nonexistent car

"I'm a Barbie girl, in the Barbie world. Life in plastic, it's fantastic! You can brush my hair, undress me everywhere. Imagination, life is your creation" Connor sang throwing his arms up and shaking his hips much to the horror of the half-bloods  
>"Come on Barbie, let's go party!" Thalia rapped in disgust<br>"I'm a Barbie girl, in the Barbie world. Life in plastic, it's fantastic! You can brush my hair, undress me everywhere. Imagination, life is your creation" Connor sang  
>"I'm a blond bimbo girl, in the fantasy world .Dress me up, make it tight, I'm your dolly." Connor sang ignoring everyone who was cracking up<p>

"You're my doll, rock'n'roll, feel the glamour in pink, kiss me here, touch me there, hanky panky..." Thalia sang in her deep voice  
>"You can touch, you can play, if you say: "I'm always yours" Connor said touching Percy's hair who shrieked and batted his hands away much to everyone's amusement<br>(uu-oooh-u)  
>"I'm a Barbie girl, in the Barbie world. Life in plastic, it's fantastic! You can brush my hair, undress me everywhere. Imagination, life is your creation." Connor twirled<br>"Come on Barbie, let's go party!" Thalia sang  
>"Ah-ah-ah-yeah" Connor echoed<br>"Come on Barbie, let's go party!"  
>"Uu-oooh-u" Connor squealed like a pig<br>"Come on Barbie, let's go party!"  
>"Ah-ah-ah-yeah"<br>"Come on Barbie, let's go party!"  
>"Uu-oooh-u" Connor sang cheerfully<br>"Make me walk, make me talk, do whatever you please  
>I can act like a star, I can beg on my knees" Connor said kneeling on the ground much to everyone's disgust<p>

"Get up Connor!" Some of the occupants in the room screamed at him

"Come jump in, bimbo friend, let us do it again, hit the town, fool around, let's go party!" Thalia wiggled her eyebrows and adjusted the ruffles at the neckline of her dress  
>"You can touch, you can play, if you say: "I'm always yours". You can touch, you can play, if you say: "I'm always yours"." Connor danced around only to fall on his butt<br>"Come on Barbie, let's go party!" Thalia sang in a too deep voice  
>"Ah-ah-ah-yeah" Connor sang twirling and jumping around<br>"Come on Barbie, let's go party!" Thalia sighed  
>"uu-oooh-u" Connor sang enjoying himself a little to much<br>"Come on Barbie, let's go party!"  
>"Ah-ah-ah-yeah"<br>"Come on Barbie, let's go party!"  
>"uu-oooh-u"<br>"I'm a Barbie girl, in the Barbie world. Life in plastic, it's fantastic! You can brush my hair, undress me everywhere. Imagination, life is your creation!" Connor sang waving and winking  
>"I'm a Barbie girl, in the Barbie world. Life in plastic, it's fantastic! You can brush my hair, undress me everywhere. Imagination, life is your creation." Connor sang<br>"Come on Barbie, let's go party!" Thalia sang as Ken in relief, the song was almost over  
>"Ah-ah-ah-yeah" Connor sang, sad that the song that described him perfectly was almost over<br>"Come on Barbie, let's go party!"  
>"uu-oooh-u"<br>"Come on Barbie, let's go party!"  
>"Ah-ah-ah-yeah"<br>"Come on Barbie, let's go party!"  
>"uu-oooh-u""<br>"Oh, I'm having so much fun!" Connor shrieked at Thalia grasping her hand  
>"Well Barbie, we're just getting started" Thalia sang trying to pull herself free<br>"Oh, I love you Ken!" Connor squeaked

"Yes songs over!" Thalia cheered raising her arms up

"But I was just getting into my part." Connor pouted

"And just how was that suppose to torture them?" Grover asked removing his hands from his ears

"I think Connor's singing broke my eardrums." Travis touched his ears delicately

"But I'm an amazing singer." Connor said doing a little dance

"Yeah let's just change out of these silly clothes and read the book before I go insane." Thalia said storming out with Silena chasing after her yelling about damaging her beautiful dress

"But I look so hot, I don't want to change." Connor pouted posing

"My eyes are burning." Nico muttered sitting on one of the couches and squinting

"Change please." Annabeth told Connor hand pressed against her eyes

"Fine." Connor sniffed before marching out

"And now we have to wait again…we really didn't think this through." Rachel said leaning against the couch

"Why don't we just start without them." Annabeth picked up the book

"I like that plan." Percy grinned "I'll read."

"My gods, Percy Jackson with a book someone get me a camera." Annabeth teased

"Shut up." He grumbled, he took a look at the chapter title, and frowned at the memory

"**We ****Visit ****the ****Garden ****Gnome ****Emporium,"** Percy read

**In a way, it's nice to know there are Greek gods out there, because you have somebody to blame when things go wrong.**

Everyone laughed at that except for a few people who looked at the ceiling as if they were afraid they were going to be struck by lightning any second.

**For instance, when you're walking away from a bus that's just been attacked by monster hags and blown up by lightning, and it's raining on top of everything else, most people might think that's just really bad luck; when you're a half-blood, you understand that some divine force really is trying to mess up your day.**

"Really?" Travis asked shocked "If I was attacked by monster hags I wouldn't think it was because of bad luck, I would think that I needed to be checked into a mental hospital…or the gods were messing with me." Travis added in the last part realizing he too was a half-blood

**So there we were, Annabeth and Grover and I, walking through the woods along the New Jersey riverbank, the glow of New York City making the night sky yellow behind us, and the smell of the Hudson reeking in our noses.**

"You don't have to be that descriptive." Rachel said in disgust

**Grover was shivering and braying, his big goat eyes turned slit-pupiled and full of terror.**

Everyone smiled at the mental image of that.

**"Three Kindly Ones. All three at once."**

**I was pretty much in shock myself. The explosion of bus windows still rang in my ears. But Annabeth kept pulling us along, saying: "Come on! The farther away we get, the better."**

"Annabeth saving your scrawny butt as usual." Clarisse said

"What would you do without me, Seaweed Brain?" Annabeth smiled ruffling his hair

"I'd be 6 feet under ground." Percy admitted

**"All our money was back there," I reminded her. "Our food and clothes. Everything."**

"Uh…" Tyson shuddered "That sounds horrible, no peanut butter."

**"Well, maybe if you hadn't decided to jump into the fight—"**

**"What did you want me to do? Let you get killed?"**

**"You didn't need to protect me, Percy. I would've been fine."**

**"Sliced like sandwich bread," Grover put in, "but fine."**

"Thank you Grover." Percy grinned at the satyr

**"Shut up, goat boy," said Annabeth.**

Grover sputtered "Goat Boy!" he yelled outraged

**Grover brayed mournfully. "Tin cans ... a perfectly good bag of tin cans."**

Grover sniffed "They will always have a place in my heart."

Several people snickered and rolled their eyes

**We sloshed across mushy ground, through nasty twisted trees that smelled like sour laundry.**

Everyone's face twisted in disgust

**After a few minutes, Annabeth fell into line next to me. "Look, I..." Her voice faltered. "I appreciate your coming back for us, okay? That was really brave."**

"Aw, young love." Travis laughed

"How cute, she thinks your brave." A loud voice boomed

Everyone turned to find Connor with his arms crossed in-thank gods his normal clothes.

"You started without us." He pouted glancing at the book

"Hmn." Percy muttered "Where are Thalia and Silena?"

"Apparently Thalia doesn't know how to take a dress off so Silena's helping her." Connor snickered

**"We're a team, right?"**

**She was silent for a few more steps. "It's just that if you died ... aside from the fact that it would really suck for you, it would mean the quest was over. This may be my only chance to see the real world."**

"The love you have for your true love astounds me." Clarisse whispered in Annabeth's ear watching in amusement as she turned red

**The thunderstorm had finally let up. The city glow faded behind us, leaving us in almost total darkness. I couldn't see anything of Annabeth except a glint of her blond hair.**

**"You haven't left Camp Half-Blood since you were seven?" I asked her.**

**"No... only short field trips. My dad—"**

**"The history professor."**

**"Yeah. ****It ****didn't ****work ****out ****for ****me ****living ****at ****home. ****I ****mean, ****Camp ****Half-Blood **_**is **_**my ****home." ****She ****was****rushing ****her ****words ****out ****now, ****as ****if ****she ****were ****afraid ****somebody ****might ****try ****to ****stop ****her. **

**"At camp you train and train. And that's all cool and everything, but the real world is where the monsters are. That's where you learn whether you're any good or not."**

**If I didn't know better, I could've sworn I heard doubt in her voice.**

"It wasn't doubt." Annabeth hissed glaring at Percy who raised his hands in surrender

**"You're pretty good with that knife," I said.**

**"You think so?"**

**"Anybody who can piggyback-ride a Fury is okay by me."**

**I couldn't really see, but I thought she might've smiled.**

"Well she's smiling now, so she probably was smiling than." Nico gestured at Annabeth who immediately stopped smiling

"You guys are too cute." Clarisse snickered

**"You know," she said, "maybe I should tell you... Something funny back on the bus..."**

**Whatever ****she ****wanted ****to ****say ****was ****interrupted ****by ****a ****shrill **_**toot-toot-toot, **_**like ****the ****sound ****of ****an ****owl ****being ****tortured.**

**"Hey, my reed pipes still work!" Grover cried.**

"Yay." Clarisse said being sarcastic

Grover looked offended "Owls being tortured?" he asked

"Hehe, hehe I wasn't talking about your reed pipes, psh, I was talking about some other noise." Percy said looking around refusing to meet Grover's eyes

"Don't worry you sound a lot better now." Annabeth comforted Grover shooting a look at Percy

"Yeah you sound great _now_." Percy nodded

**"If I could just remember a 'find path' song, we could get out of these woods!"**

**He puffed out a few notes, but the tune still sounded suspiciously like Hilary Duff.**

**Instead of finding a path, I immediately slammed into a tree and got a nice-size knot on my head.**

A few people laughed at this

**Add that ****to ****the ****list ****of ****super powers ****I ****did **_**not **_**have: ****infrared ****vision.**

"Actually add that too a list of super powers I do have." Percy smirked cockily

"Only underwater." Annabeth pointed out

"You're always knocking me down, aren't you?" Percy sighed, and always pulling me up, he added in as an afterthought

**After tripping and cursing and generally feeling miserable for another mile or so, I started to see light up ahead: the colors of a neon sign. I could smell food. Fried, greasy, excellent food.**

"Holy." Nico drooled along with all of the boys

Rachel shivered in disgust "Do you know how bad that is for you, all the calories."

"Be quiet women, and let me enjoy my daydream." Connor shooed Rachel away

"Fine, don't blame me for not warning you when you hold the record for world's fattest man." Rachel rolled her eyes

**I realized I hadn't eaten anything unhealthy since I'd arrived at Half-Blood Hill, where we lived on grapes, bread, cheese, and extra-lean-cut nymph-prepared barbecue. This boy needed a double cheeseburger.**

Rachel wrinkled her nose in disgust and muttered something about "Unhealthy eating habits getting half-bloods killed."

**We kept walking until I saw a deserted two-lane road through the trees. On the other side was a closed-down gas station, a tattered billboard for a 1990s movie, and one open business, which was the source of the neon light and the good smell.**

**It wasn't a fast-food restaurant like I'd hoped. It was one of those weird roadside curio shops that sell lawn flamingos and wooden Indians and cement grizzly bears and stuff like that. The main building was a long, low warehouse, surrounded by acres of statuary. The neon sign above the gate was impossible for me to read, because if there's anything worse for my dyslexia than regular English, it's red cursive neon English.**

"I hate cursive couldn't learn it in second grade, can't learn it now." Beckendorf shook his head

**To ****me, ****it ****looked ****like: **_**ATNY U**__**MES **__**GDERAN **__**GOMEN **__**MEPROUIM.**_

"Um, okay I can't read that." Percy frowned at the letters

"Just continue." Annabeth sighed after taking a look at the page

**"What the heck does that say?" I asked.**

**"I don't know," Annabeth said.**

**She loved reading so much, I'd forgotten she was dyslexic, too.**

Everyone frowned having forgotten that Annabeth was dyslexic too.

**Grover translated: "Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium."**

**Flanking the entrance, as advertised, were two cement garden gnomes, ugly bearded little runts, smiling and waving, as if they were about to get their picture taken.**

Annabeth, Percy, and Grover frowned sadly remembering all the statues that were in the garden, all those people that have died.

**I crossed the street, following the smell of the hamburgers.**

**"Hey..." Grover warned.**

**"The lights are on inside," Annabeth said. "Maybe it's open."**

**"Snack bar," I said wistfully.**

**"Snack bar," she agreed.**

**"Are you two crazy?" Grover said. "This place is weird."**

"Listen to him." Everyone urged, something was very wrong

Annabeth frowned, how could she have fallen for that trap?

**We ignored him.**

Clarisse leaned back "Of course you did."

**The front lot was a forest of statues: cement animals, cement children, even a cement satyr playing the pipes, which gave Grover the creeps.**

_**"Bla-ha-ha!"**_**he****bleated.****"Looks ****like ****my ****Uncle ****Ferdinand!"**

Everyone stared at the book in confusion "What was going on?" they all wondered

**We stopped at the warehouse door.**

**"Don't knock," Grover pleaded. "I smell monsters."**

**"Your nose is clogged up from the Furies," Annabeth told him.**

Annabeth slapped her forehead at this "how could I have been so stupid?" she scolded herself

"Don't worry we all fell for it." Percy patted her awkwardly

"Yeah but I'm suppose to be a daughter of Athena, and there were so many clues." Annabeth sighed frustrated

**"All I smell is burgers. Aren't you hungry?"**

**"Meat!" he said scornfully. "I'm a vegetarian."**

**"You eat cheese enchiladas and aluminum cans," I reminded him.**

"That's not meat." Nico pointed out in a 'Even I know that' tone

**"Those are vegetables.**

"I hate to tell you this Grover but they're not vegetables." Chris said

**Come on. Let's leave. These statues are ... looking at me."**

**Then the door creaked open, and standing in front of us was a tall Middle Eastern woman—at least, I assumed she was Middle Eastern, because she wore a long black gown that covered everything but her hands, and her head was completely veiled. Her eyes glinted behind a curtain of black gauze, but that was about all I could make out. Her coffee-colored hands looked old, but well-manicured and elegant, so I imagined she was a grandmother who had once been a beautiful lady.**

"Oh my gods, only you would find _her_ beautiful." Annabeth said

"Well she was once." Percy said defensively "You know before she grew snakes for hair."

**Her accent sounded vaguely Middle Eastern, too. She said, "Children, it is too late to be out all alone. Where are your parents?"**

**"They're ... um ..." Annabeth started to say.**

**"We're orphans," I said.**

"Percy you idiot." Nico put his face in his hands

"Leave the lying to Annabeth and Grover next time." Connor shook his head ashamed

"I thought you said I sucked at lying." Grover said amazed

"Yeah but anyone's a better liar than him." Travis told him

**"Orphans?" the woman said. The word sounded alien in her mouth. "But, my dears! Surely not!"**

**"We ****got ****separated ****from ****our ****caravan," ****I**** said. ****"Our ****circus ****caravan.**

"This is getting worse and worse by the second." Chris sighed

**The ringmaster told us to meet him at the gas station if we got lost, but he may have forgotten, or maybe he meant a different gas station. Anyway, we're lost. Is that food I smell?"**

**"Oh, my dears," the woman said. "You must come in, poor children. I am Aunty Em. Go straight through to the back of the warehouse, please. There is a dining area."**

**We thanked her and went inside.**

**Annabeth muttered to me, "Circus caravan?"**

**"Always have a strategy, right?"**

**"Your head is full of kelp."**

"Kelp head, kind of like it." Thalia said

"You guys are back; did Thalia figure out how to get a dress off?" Percy smirked

"Yes with a lot of ripping, my poor dress." Silena pouted

"I'm planning my revenge." Thalia grinned wickedly "Catch me up on what's going on." She said to Annabeth who quietly explained what had happened so far

**The warehouse was filled with more statues—people in all different poses, wearing all different outfits and with different expressions on their faces. I was thinking you'd have to have a pretty huge garden to fit even one of these statues, because they were all life-size. But mostly, I was thinking about food.**

"Boys, ruled by their stomachs." Thalia sighed adding that to the list of reasons why it was a great thing she was a hunter

**Go ahead, call me an idiot for walking into a strange lady's shop like that just because I was hungry,**

'You're an idiot." Thalia said having figured out what monster it was, with all the statues it was pretty obvious

**but ****I ****do ****impulsive ****stuff ****sometimes. ****Plus, ****you've ****never ****smelled ****Aunty ****Em's ****burgers. ****The ****aroma ****was ****like ****laughing ****gas ****in ****the ****dentist's ****chair****—****it ****made ****everything ****else ****go ****away. ****I ****barely ****noticed ****Grover's ****nervous ****whimpers, ****or ****the ****way ****the ****statues' ****eyes ****seemed ****to ****follow ****me, ****or ****the ****fact ****that ****Aunty ****Em ****had ****locked ****the ****door ****behind ****us.**

"Enchanted food, interesting." Clarisse raised an eyebrow

**All I cared about was finding the dining area. And sure enough, there it was at the back of the warehouse, a fast-food counter with a grill, a soda fountain, a pretzel heater, and a nacho cheese dispenser. Everything you could want, plus a few steel picnic tables out front.**

"Okay, this is good, eat fast and once you fill you're stomachs maybe you'll wake up and realize you're in a monster's lair!" Thalia nearly screamed

Most of the boys were starring at the sky dreamily, as of now they didn't care if this was a trap set up by a monster, they were going to Aunty Em's as soon as they got back to the real world

**"Please, sit down," Aunty Em said.**

**"Awesome," I said.**

**"Um," Grover said reluctantly, "we don't have any money, ma'am."**

**Before I could jab him in the ribs, Aunty Em said, "No, no, children. No money. This is a special case, yes? It is my treat, for such nice orphans."**

**"Thank you, ma'am," Annabeth said.**

**Aunty Em stiffened, as if Annabeth had done some thing wrong, but then the old woman relaxed just as quickly, so I figured it must've been my imagination.**

Half the half-bloods nodded having figured it out by now

"Get out of there now!" Clarisse motioned

**"Quite all right, Annabeth," she said. "You have such beautiful gray eyes, child." **

"How did she know Annabeth's name?" Rachel stated in confusion

Thalia groaned "So dead."

**Only later did I wonder how she knew Annabeth's name, even though we had never introduced ourselves.**

**Our hostess disappeared behind the snack counter and started cooking. Before we knew it, she'd brought us plastic trays heaped with double cheeseburgers, vanilla shakes, and XXL servings of French fries.**

**I was halfway through my burger before I remembered to breathe.**

**Annabeth slurped her shake.**

**Grover picked at the fries, and eyed the tray's waxed paper liner as if he might go for that, but he still looked too nervous to eat.**

"Maybe you as well ought to have just eaten it; she probably already knew you were a satyr anyway." Thalia said

**"What's that hissing noise?" he asked.**

**I listened, but didn't hear anything. Annabeth shook her head.**

**"Hissing?" Aunty Em asked. "Perhaps you hear the deep-fryer oil. You have keen ears, Grover."**

"How did she know you're name, do monsters have some kind of super power that allows them to know names instantly?" Rachel asked

A few people shrugged, gods mortals have the most interesting questions.

**"I take vitamins. For my ears."**

**"That's admirable," she said. "But please, relax."**

**Aunt Em ate nothing. She hadn't taken off her head dress, even to cook, and now she sat forward and interlaced her fingers and watched us eat. It was a little unsettling, having someone stare at me when I couldn't see her face, but I was feeling satisfied after the burger, and a little sleepy, and I figured the least I could do was try to make small talk with our hostess.**

**"So, you sell gnomes," I said, trying to sound interested.**

**"Oh, yes," Aunty Em said. "And animals. And people. Anything for the garden. Custom orders. Statuary is very popular, you know."**

**"A lot of business on this road?"**

**"Not so much, no. Since the highway was built... most cars, they do not go this way now. I must cherish every customer I get."**

Everyone who had figured out what was going on grimaced

**My neck tingled, as if somebody else was looking at me. I turned, but it was just a statue of a young girl holding an Easter basket. **

Everyone who hadn't figured out what was going on by now finally caught on after hearing this

"That poor girl." Silena shook her head

**The detail was incredible, much better than you see in most garden statues.**

**But something was wrong with her face. It looked as if she were startled, or even terrified.**

Thalia sighed, it was truly a miracle they had survived

"Well I'd be terrified too if a lady with snake for hair turned me into stone." Clarisse said with a hint of sympathy

**"Ah," Aunty Em said sadly. "You notice some of my creations do not turn out well. They are marred. They do not sell. The face is the hardest to get right. Always the face."**

"Wonder why?" Thalia said sarcastically hating this "Aunty Em" more and more by the second

**"You make these statues yourself?" I asked.**

**"Oh, yes. Once upon a time, I had two sisters to help me in the business, but they have passed on, and Aunty Em is alone. I have only my statues. This is why I make them, you see. They are my company." The sadness in her voice sounded so deep and so real that I couldn't help feeling sorry for her.**

"Don't feel sorry, she deserved everything she got, and more." Annabeth spat

Thalia snickered "Only you'd feel sorry for her."

**Annabeth had stopped eating. She sat forward and said, "Two sisters?"**

Connor and Travis clapped obnoxiously "And the daughter of Athena finally catches on!"

Annabeth glared at them causing them to stop clapping and sink into their seats

**"It's a terrible story," Aunty Em said. "Not one for children, really. You see, Annabeth, a bad woman was jealous of me, long ago, when I was young.**

"She was not jealous." Annabeth snapped

**I had a... a boyfriend, you know, and this bad woman was determined to break us apart. She caused a terrible accident. My sisters stayed by me. They shared my bad fortune as long as they could, but eventually they passed on. They faded away. I alone have survived, but at a price. Such a price."**

**I wasn't sure what she meant, but I felt bad for her.**

"Why can't for once you just be a jerk and not buy the first sob story you hear." Annabeth mentally sighed along with half the room

"Because I'm just naturally this awesome person." Percy smiled easily

**My eyelids kept getting heavier, my full stomach making me sleepy. Poor old lady. Who would want to hurt somebody so nice?**

**"Percy?" Annabeth was shaking me to get my attention. "Maybe we should go. I mean, the ringmaster will be waiting."**

"She's not going to let you leave now." Sighed Nico biting the inside of his cheeks

**She sounded tense. I wasn't sure why. Grover was eating the waxed paper off the tray now, but if Aunty Em found that strange, she didn't say anything.**

**"Such beautiful gray eyes," Aunty Em told Annabeth again. "My, yes, it has been a long time since I've seen gray eyes like those."**

**She reached out as if to stroke Annabeth's cheek, but Annabeth stood up abruptly.**

**"We really should go."**

**"Yes!" Grover swallowed his waxed paper and stood up. "The ringmaster is waiting! Right!"**

**I didn't want to leave. I felt full and content. Aunty Em was so nice. I wanted to stay with her a while.**

"No get out of there now!" Thalia threw a fit

"Daddy's ex girlfriend is evil, and not even step mother evil I mean literally evil!" Nico said

"You're dad wanted to stay with her for awhile too now look at her." Clarisse snorted

**"Please, dears," Aunty Em pleaded. "I so rarely get to be with children. Before you go, won't you at least sit for a pose?"**

**"A pose?" Annabeth asked warily.**

**"A ****photograph. ****I ****will ****use ****it ****to ****model ****a ****new ****statue ****set.** **Children ****are ****so ****popular, ****you ****see. ****Everyone ****loves ****children."**

"No one likes dead children!" Nico snarled

**Annabeth shifted her weight from foot to foot. "I don't think we can, ma'am. Come on, Percy—"**

**"Sure we can," I said.**

Several people groaned and a few screamed frustrated

"This books going to put me into a retirement home." Thalia frowned

"Than just wait till the next 4 books." Percy smiled at her

**I was irritated with Annabeth for being so bossy, so rude to an old lady who'd just fed us for free. "It's just a photo, Annabeth. What's the harm?"**

"A lot!" Annabeth said having never answered her question back than

**"Yes, Annabeth," the woman purred. "No harm."**

**I could tell Annabeth didn't like it, but she allowed Aunty Em to lead us back out the front door, into the garden of statues.**

"You should have just stuck your knife in her back and disintegrated her right there." Thalia said bitterly

"Her instincts were amazing, if Annabeth had tried doing that it probably would have ended the other way." Grover said

**Aunty Em directed us to a park bench next to the stone satyr. "Now," she said, "I'll just position you correctly. The young girl in the middle, I think, and the two young gentlemen on either side."**

**"Not much light for a photo," I remarked.**

**"Oh, enough," Aunty Em said. "Enough for us to see each other, yes?"**

**"Where's your camera?" Grover asked.**

All the half-bloods, Rachel, and Tyson groaned

**Aunty Em stepped back, as if to admire the shot. "Now, the face is the most difficult. Can you smile for me please, everyone? A large smile?"**

**Grover glanced at the cement satyr next to him, and mumbled, "That sure does look like Uncle Ferdinand."**

Everyone looked at Grover sadly, probably was Uncle Ferdinand

**"Grover," Aunty Em chastised, "look this way, dear."**

**She still had no camera in her hands.**

**"Percy—" Annabeth said.**

**Some instinct warned me to listen to Annabeth, but I was fighting the sleepy feeling, the comfortable lull that came from the food and the old lady's voice.**

"Listen to your instinct!" Thalia urged "Kill her so she won't do this to those poor travelers anymore."

**"I will just be a moment," Aunty Em said. "You know, I can't see you very well in this cursed veil..."**

"She's taking off the veil get out of there now!" Silena insisted

**"Percy, something's wrong," Annabeth insisted.**

**"Wrong?" Aunty Em said, reaching up to undo the wrap around her head. "Not at all, dear. I have such noble company tonight. What could be wrong?"**

**"That **_**is **_**Uncle ****Ferdinand!"****Grover****gasped.**

**"Look away from her!" Annabeth shouted. She whipped her Yankees cap onto her head and vanished. Her invisible hands pushed Grover and me both off the bench.**

"Yes!" nearly everyone cheered

"Annabeth comes to the rescue yet again!" Connor pumped his fist in the air

**I was on the ground, looking at Aunt Em's sandaled feet.**

**I could hear Grover scrambling off in one direction, Annabeth in another. But I was too dazed to move.**

"Move, this isn't the time to get cold feet." Nico pointed out

**Then I heard a strange, rasping sound above me. My eyes rose to Aunty Em's hands, which had turned gnarled and warty, with sharp bronze talons for fingernails.**

**I almost looked higher, but somewhere off to my left Annabeth screamed, "No! Don't!"**

Everyone let out a breath they didn't know they were holding

**More rasping—the sound of tiny snakes, right above me, from ... from about where Aunty Em's head would be.**

**"Run!"****Grover ****bleated. ****I ****heard ****him ****racing ****across ****the ****gravel, ****yelling, ****"**_**Maia**_**!"** **to ****kick-start ****his ****flying ****sneakers.**

"At least those sneakers were good for something." Thalia muttered

**I couldn't move. I stared at Aunty Em's gnarled claws, and tried to fight the groggy trance the old woman had put me in.**

**"Such a pity to destroy a handsome young face," she told me soothingly. "Stay with me, Percy. All you have to do is look up."**

**I fought the urge to obey. Instead I looked to one side and saw one of those glass spheres people put in gardens— a gazing ball. I could see Aunty Em's dark reflection in the orange glass; her headdress was gone, revealing her face as a shimmering pale circle. Her hair was moving, writhing like serpents.**

**Aunty Em.**

**Aunty "M."**

"And Percy figures it out, after about 300 clues." Thalia clapped her hands as if Percy had just won an award

**How could I have been so stupid?**

"Well…" Connor began

"Don't." Annabeth advised him

**Think, I told myself. How did Medusa die in the myth?**

**But I couldn't think. Something told me that in the myth Medusa had been asleep when she was attacked by my namesake, Perseus. She wasn't anywhere near asleep now. If she wanted, she could take those talons right now and rake open my face.**

"That's…disturbing." Rachel said

"Nah, Medusa wouldn't do that, she's to sweet on his dad." Connor batted his eyelashes at Percy

**"The Gray-Eyed One did this to me, Percy," Medusa said, and she didn't sound anything like a monster. Her voice invited me to look up, to sympathize with a poor old grandmother. "Annabeth's mother, the cursed Athena, turned me from a beautiful woman into this."**

**"Don't listen to her!" Annabeth's voice shouted, some where in the statuary. "Run, Percy!"**

"Listen to Annabeth."

**"Silence!" Medusa snarled. Then her voice modulated back to a comforting purr. "You see why I must destroy the girl, Percy. She is my enemy's daughter. I shall crush her statue to dust. But you, dear Percy, you need not suffer."**

"She's just going to kill you and send you to Hades the hard way, absolutely no suffering there." Nico rolled his eyes

"I don't know with all I've been through the past few years…" Percy stopped after seeing the glares he was getting from some of the occupants in the room "Jeez relax I was just joking."

**"No," I muttered. I tried to make my legs move.**

**"Do you really want to help the gods?" Medusa asked. "Do you understand what awaits you on this foolish quest, Percy? What will happen if you reach the Underworld? Do not be a pawn of the Olympians, my dear. You would be better off as a statue. Less pain. Less pain."**

**"Percy!" Behind me, I heard a buzzing sound, like a two-hundred-pound hummingbird in a nosedive. Grover yelled, "Duck!"**

**I turned, and there he was in the night sky, flying in from twelve o'clock with his winged shoes fluttering, Grover, holding a tree branch the size of a baseball bat. His eyes were shut tight, his head twitched from side to side. He was navigating by ears and nose alone.**

**"Duck!" he yelled again. "I'll get her!"**

**That finally jolted me into action. Knowing Grover, I was sure he'd miss Medusa and nail me.**

"I am trying very hard not to be annoyed by that." Grover huffed

"Sorry." Percy blushed

**I****dove****to****one****side.**

_**Thwack!**_

**At first I figured it was the sound of Grover hitting a tree. Then Medusa roared with rage.**

The room exploded into cheering

"Go Goat Boy!" Thalia cheered looking like she could do a cartwheel

**"You miserable satyr," she snarled. "I'll add you to my collection!"**

**"That was for Uncle Ferdinand!" Grover yelled back.**

**I scrambled away and hid in the statuary while Grover swooped down for another pass.**

_**Ker-whack!**_

**"Arrgh!" Medusa yelled, her snake-hair hissing and spitting.**

**Right next to me, Annabeth's voice said, "Percy!"**

**I jumped so high my feet nearly cleared a garden gnome. "Jeez! Don't do that!"**

**Annabeth took off her Yankees cap and became visible. "You have to cut her head off."**

**"What? Are you crazy? Let's get out of here."**

"You're just going to leave Medusa there to kill innocent travelers?" Rachel asked her tone in disbelief

"I think Percy can't bare the idea of killing his daddy's ex girlfriend." Clarisse mocked

"That's not it, and even if Percy didn't kill her there's no way she's going to let any of you escape now." Nico said coming to Percy's defense

**"Medusa is a menace. She's evil. I'd kill her myself, but..." Annabeth swallowed, as if she were about to make a difficult admission. "But you've got the better weapon. Besides, I'd never get close to her. She'd slice me to bits because of my mother. You—you've got a chance."**

**"What? I can't—"**

**"Look, do you want her turning more innocent people into statues?"**

**She pointed to a pair of statue lovers, a man and a woman with their arms around each other, turned to stone by the monster.**

Silena sighed at the mention of lovers, and everyone grimaced

**Annabeth grabbed a green gazing ball from a nearby pedestal. "A polished shield would be better." She studied the sphere critically. "The convexity will cause some distortion. The reflection's size should be off by a factor of—"**

"Uh…can someone translate that…in English please?" Travis asked rubbing his temples

"She meant that you the reflection won't be precise." Percy grinned at Annabeth

"I'm impressed Seaweed Brain." Annabeth grinned back at him

**"Would you speak English?"**

**"I **_**am!" **_**She ****tossed ****me ****the ****glass ****ball.**

**"Just ****look ****at ****her ****in ****the ****glass. **_**Never **_**look ****at ****her ****directly."**

**"Hey, guys!" Grover yelled somewhere above us. "I think she's unconscious!"**

"You're not going to win that easily, she's been turning all kinds of people into stone for centuries, if she could be defeated by a satyr than she would have been gone decades ago-no offence." Thalia added in the last part for Grover's sake

_**"Roooaaarrr!"**_

**"Maybe not," Grover corrected. He went in for another pass with the tree branch.**

**"Hurry," Annabeth told me. "Grover's got a great nose, but he'll eventually crash."**

"The faith you guys have in me is truly amazing." Grover smiled to let them know he was joking

**I took out my pen and uncapped it. The bronze blade of Riptide elongated in my hand.**

**I followed the hissing and spitting sounds of Medusa's hair.**

**I kept my eyes locked on the gazing ball so I would only glimpse Medusa's reflection, not the real thing. Then, in the green tinted glass, I saw her.**

**Grover was coming in for another turn at bat, but this time he flew a little too low. Medusa grabbed the stick and pulled him off course. He tumbled through the air and crashed into the arms of a stone grizzly bear with a painful "Ummphh!"**

"That's gotta hurt." Nico winced

"It did." Grover shuddered at the memory of him crashing

**Medusa was about to lunge at him when I yelled, "Hey!"**

**I advanced on her, which wasn't easy, holding a sword and a glass ball. If she charged, I'd have a hard time defending myself.**

"You really don't think anything through do you, what if she did charge than what would you have done?" Annabeth scolded Percy

**But she let me approach—twenty feet, ten feet.**

**I ****could ****see ****the ****reflection ****of ****her ****face ****now. ****Surely ****it ****wasn't ****really **_**that **_**ugly. ****The ****green ****swirls ****of ****the ****gazing ****ball ****must ****be ****distorting ****it, ****making ****it ****look ****worse.**

"Oh, it is that bad." Beckendorf said chuckling

**"You wouldn't harm an old woman, Percy," she crooned. "I know you wouldn't."**

"Percy wouldn't harm mortals but he would hurt monsters!" Tyson said

**I hesitated, fascinated by the face I saw reflected in the glass—the eyes that seemed to burn straight through the green tint, making my arms go weak.**

**From the cement grizzly, Grover moaned, "Percy, don't listen to her!"**

**Medusa cackled. "Too late."**

**She lunged at me with her talons.**

**I ****slashed ****up ****with ****my ****sword, ****heard ****a ****sickening **_**shlock!, **_**then ****a ****hiss ****like ****wind ****rushing ****out ****of ****a ****cavern****—****the ****sound ****of ****a ****monster ****disintegrating.**

"Thank gods." Silena breathed a sigh of relief and everyone else cheered

**Something fell to the ground next to my foot. It took all my willpower not to look. I could feel warm ooze soaking into my sock, little dying snake heads tugging at my shoelaces.**

Some of the half-bloods looked like they were about to throw up

"Eeww, eeww, eeww the image is stuck in my head!" Rachel squeezed her eyes shut

**"Oh, yuck," Grover said. His eyes were still tightly closed, but I guess he could hear the thing gurgling and steaming. "Mega-yuck."**

"Double mega yuck." Rachel agreed

**Annabeth came up next to me, her eyes fixed on the sky. She was holding Medusa's black veil. She said, "Don't move."**

**Very, very carefully, without looking down, she knelt and draped the monster's head in black cloth, then picked it up. It was still dripping green juice.**

**"Are you okay?" she asked me, her voice trembling.**

**"Yeah," I decided, though I felt like throwing up my double cheeseburger. **

"I wouldn't after I'd finally gotten a full meal I wouldn't just throw it up, and even if I did I would eat it again." Travis said as if there was absolutely nothing wrong with what he had just said

Everyone stared at him in disgust "I think that was grosser than Medusa's head being cut off." Silena said slightly green

**"Why didn't... why didn't the head evaporate?"**

**"Once you sever it, it becomes a spoil of war," she said. "Same as your minotaur horn. But don't unwrap the head. It can still petrify you."**

**Grover moaned as he climbed down from the grizzly statue. He had a big welt on his forehead. His green rasta cap hung from one of his little goat horns, and his fake feet had been knocked off his hooves. The magic sneakers were flying aimlessly around his head.**

"Like the cartoons." Tyson muttered

"Dude you sound terrible." Nico shook his head

"Wow Nico, I'm sure that really boast Goat Boy's self confidence." Thalia rolled her eyes

**"The Red Baron," I said. "Good job, man."**

**He ****managed ****a ****bashful ****grin. ****"That ****really ****was **_**not **_**fun, ****though. ****Well, ****the ****hitting-her-with-a-stick ****part, ****that ****was ****fun. ****But ****crashing ****into ****a ****concrete ****bear? **_**Not **_**fun."**

"Well that's definitely not on my Fun list." Connor grimaced

"You have a fun list?" Annabeth raised her eyebrows

"Of course."

**He snatched his shoes out of the air. I recapped my sword. Together, the three of us stumbled back to the warehouse.**

**We found some old plastic grocery bags behind the snack counter and double-wrapped Medusa's head. We plopped it on the table where we'd eaten dinner and sat around it, too exhausted to speak.**

**Finally I said, "So we have Athena to thank for this monster?"**

"That's not going to make Annabeth happy." Chris chuckled

**Annabeth flashed me an irritated look. "Your dad, actually. **

**Don't ****you ****remember? ****Medusa ****was ****Poseidon's ****girlfriend.** **They ****decided ****to ****meet ****in ****my ****mother's ****temple. ****That's ****why ****Athena ****turned ****her ****into ****a ****monster. ****Medusa ****and ****her ****two ****sisters ****who ****had ****helped ****her ****get ****into ****the ****temple, ****they ****became ****the ****three ****gorgons. ****That's ****why ****Medusa ****wanted ****to ****slice ****me ****up, ****but ****she ****wanted ****to ****preserve ****you ****as ****a ****nice ****statue. ****She's ****still ****sweet ****on ****your ****dad. ****You ****probably ****reminded ****her ****of ****him."**

**My****face****was****burning.****"Oh,****so****now****it's**_**my**_**fault****we****met****Medusa."**

**Annabeth straightened. In a bad imitation of my voice, she said: "'It's just a photo, Annabeth. What's the harm?'"**

"But you didn't figure it out either." Nico pointed out only to shrink as Annabeth glared at him

"If you both would have just listened to me none of this would have happened." Grover huffed crossing his arms

**"Forget it," I said. "You're impossible."**

**"You're insufferable."**

**"You're—"**

**"Hey!" ****Grover ****interrupted. ****"You ****two ****are ****giving ****me ****a ****migraine, ****and ****satyrs ****don't ****even **_**get **_**migraines. ****What ****are ****we ****going ****to ****do ****with ****the ****head?"**

"Don't get in the way of their lover's spat, how will they ever work things out that way?" Silena frowned

Both Percy and Annabeth turned beat red "It's not a lover's spat!" they both said defensively

**I stared at the thing. One little snake was hanging out of a hole in the plastic. The words printed on the side of the bag said: WE APPRECIATE YOUR BUSINESS!**

**I was angry, not just with Annabeth or her mom, but with all the gods for this whole quest, for getting us blown off the road and in two major fights the very first day out from camp. At this rate, we'd never make it to L.A. alive, much less before the summer solstice.**

**What had Medusa said?**

_**Do not be a pawn of the Olympians, my dear. You would be better off as a statue.**_

"She's lying you're not a pawn, the gods need you." Annabeth comforted Percy

**I got up. "I'll be back."**

**"Percy," Annabeth called after me. "What are you—"**

**I searched the back of the warehouse until I found Medusa's office. Her account book showed her six most recent sales, all shipments to the Underworld to decorate Hades and Persephone's garden. According to one freight bill, the Underworld's billing address was DOA Recording Studios, West Hollywood, California. I folded up the bill and stuffed it in my pocket.**

"Finally in this whole chapter you finally do something smart, without Annabeth's help!" Thalia teased

**In the cash register I found twenty dollars, a few golden drachmas, and some packing slips for Hermes Overnight Express, each with a little leather bag attached for coins. I rummaged around the rest of the office until I found the right-size box.**

**I went back to the picnic table, packed up Medusa's head, and filled out a delivery slip:**

_**The Gods**_

_**Mount Olympus**_

_**600th Floor,**_

_**Empire**__**State**__**Building**_

_**New York, NY**_

_**With best wishes,**_

_**PERCY JACKSON**_

Some of the half-bloods had horrified expressions on their face at this

"Best wishes are you insane?" Thalia shrieked like a screaming banshee

"Just a bit, isn't that what you've been saying since we got here?" Percy smirked

**"They're not going to like that," Grover warned. "They'll think you're impertinent."**

**I ****poured ****some ****golden ****drachmas ****in ****the ****pouch. ****As ****soon ****as ****I ****closed ****it,****there ****was ****a ****sound ****like ****a ****cash ****register.****The ****package ****floated ****off ****the ****table ****and ****disappeared ****with ****a **_**pop!**_

**"I **_**am **_**impertinent,"****I****said.**

"We all knew that." Clarisse rolled her eyes

**I looked at Annabeth, daring her to criticize.**

**She didn't. She seemed resigned to the fact that I had a major talent for ticking off the gods. "Come on," she muttered. "We need a new plan."**

"End of the chapter." Percy said flipping to the next page

"I'll read." Nico offered "It'll be nice to be ahead of all of you for once in Percy's thoughts."

**Author's Note: Thank you Tashwampa for helping me out with the chapter, and all of those who reviewed. **

**Please ****review,****suggestions ****are ****always ****welcome, ****flames ****make ****me ****happy, ****and ****compliments ****make ****me ****ecstatic!****I ****listened ****to ****the ****Barbie ****song ****for ****this ****chapter ****to ****happen ****so ****please****…****just ****review. ****Also ****check ****out ****my ****other ****story ****5 ****things ****you****'****d ****never ****know.**

**I ****have ****a ****poll ****on ****my ****profile ****so ****please ****vote ****for ****which ****characters ****you ****want ****me ****to ****add ****to ****my ****story, ****you ****can ****vote ****up ****to ****6 ****characters, ****and ****they****'****ll ****be ****added ****a ****few ****chapters ****from ****now.**


	14. We get advice from a Poodle

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson or any of its characters. **

**Please review, suggestions are all welcomed, flames make me happy, and compliments make me scream with joy!**

**Poll on my profile please vote for up to 6 characters I should add in my story.**

**Chapter Twelve**

"**We get advice from a Poodle."**

"**We ****Get ****Advice ****from ****a ****Poodle,"** Nico read pausing"That's an interesting chapter title." He muttered

Percy, Annabeth, and Grover shrugged "We've done weirder."

**We were pretty miserable that night.**

**We camped out in the woods, a hundred yards from the main road, in a marshy clearing that local kids had obviously been using for parties.**

**The ground was littered with flattened soda cans and fast-food wrappers.**

Grover fumed before silently ranting about how humans are destroying the world with their delicious wrappers.

**We'd taken some food and blankets from Aunty Em's, but we didn't dare light a fire to dry our damp clothes. The Furies and Medusa had provided enough excitement for one day. We didn't want to attract anything else.**

**We decided to sleep in shifts. I volunteered to take first watch.**

**Annabeth curled up on the blankets and was snoring as soon as her head hit the ground. **

Annabeth raised her head up high and glared at Percy "I do not snore, Seaweed Brain."

"Deny it all you want." Percy sang, while Silena squealed about how cute they were

Thalia raised an eyebrow at her "Are you going to do that every time they talk?" she asked bluntly, Silena responded by shaking her head eagerly

**Grover fluttered with his flying shoes to the lowest bough of a tree, put his back to the trunk, and stared at the night sky.**

**"Go ahead and sleep," I told him. "I'll wake you if there's trouble."**

**He nodded, but still didn't close his eyes. "It makes me sad, Percy."**

**"What does? The fact that you signed up for this stupid quest?"**

"Now that I think about it, it does make me sad, but everything worked out in the end and I walked out with a minimum amount of mental scarring." Grover shuddered at the last part

**"No. _This _makes me sad." He pointed at all the garbage on the ground. "And the sky. You can't even see the stars. They've polluted the sky. This is a terrible time to be a satyr."**

"Terrible for nature." Tyson nodded in agreement

**"Oh, yeah. I guess you'd be an environmentalist."**

A few people groaned

"Only you would ask a question as stupid as that." Annabeth sighed

Percy huffed "I thought it was perfectly reasonable for me to ask him that."

**He glared at me. "Only a human wouldn't be. Your species is clogging up the world so fast ... ah, never mind. It's useless to lecture a human. At the rate things are going, I'll never find Pan."**

"Found him." Nico muttered causing Percy, Grover, Annabeth, Tyson, and Rachel to wince

**"Pam? Like the cooking spray?"**

"Yes of course, he was looking for cooking spray to save nature makes a lot of sense." Thalia rolled her eyes at Percy in disbelief

Grover hissed and sank lower into his chair crossing his arms "Pan, its Pan, how many times do I have to tell people?" he muttered to himself

**"Pan!" he cried indignantly. "P-A-N. The great god Pan! What do you think I want a searcher's license for?"**

**A strange breeze rustled through the clearing, temporarily overpowering the stink of trash and muck. It brought the smell of berries and wildflowers and clean rain water, things that might've once been in these woods. Suddenly I was nostalgic for something I'd never known.**

**"Tell me about the search," I said.**

**Grover looked at me cautiously, as if he were afraid I was just making fun.**

"I wouldn't make fun of you." Percy scowled as if he was angry he could even think that

"Yeah, Percy is much too sweet for that." Connor and Travis cooed

"You're right I…you're mocking me aren't you?" Percy sighed in realization, causing Connor and Travis to grin cheekily

**"The God of Wild Places disappeared two thousand years ago," he told me. "A sailor off the coast of Ephesos heard a mysterious voice crying out from the shore, 'Tell them that the great god Pan has died!' When humans heard the news, they believed it. They've been pillaging Pan's kingdom ever since. But for the satyrs, Pan was our lord and master. He protected us and the wild places of the earth. We refuse to believe that he died. In every generation, the bravest satyrs pledge their lives to finding Pan. They search the earth, exploring all the wildest places, hoping to find where he is hidden, and wake him from his sleep."**

Nico's voice broke at the end being one of those people who had witnessed Pan's…death

**"And you want to be a searcher."**

**"It's my life's dream," he said. "My father was a searcher. And my Uncle Ferdinand ... the statue you saw back there—"**

**"Oh, right, sorry."**

**Grover shook his head. "Uncle Ferdinand knew the risks. So did my dad. But I'll succeed. I'll be the first searcher to return alive."**

"First!" Rachel asked bewildered "Does he mean that no satyr has ever…?"

"Yeah, know your facts, mortal." Clarisse snarled

Rachel was obviously about to say something, but after seeing Clarisse's size, she decided she should just keep her mouth shut.

"At least you set a world record, 'First satyr to find Pan and return alive'." Annabeth nudged Grover who had watched the entire scene with blank eyes

"Wouldn't have done it without you guys." Grover grinned sheepishly

**"Hang on—_the __first?"_**

**Grover took his reed pipes out of his pocket. "No searcher has ever come back. Once they set out, they disappear. They're never seen alive again."**

**"Not once in two thousand years?"**

**"No."**

**"And your dad? You have no idea what happened to him?"**

**"None."**

**"But you still want to go," I said, amazed. "I mean, you really think you'll be the one to find Pan?"**

"I kind of have to." Grover muttered

Clarisse couldn't help but feel slightly impressed by the satyr, he had guts, but of course she would never tell him that."

**"I have to believe that, Percy. Every searcher does. It's the only thing that keeps us from despair when we look at what humans have done to the world. I have to believe Pan can still be awakened."**

**I stared at the orange haze of the sky and tried to understand how Grover could pursue a dream that seemed so hopeless. Then again, was I any better?**

**"How are we going to get into the Underworld?" I asked him. "I mean, what chance do we have against a god?"**

"Hmn let me think about-none." Thalia announced

**"I don't know," he admitted. "But back at Medusa's, when you were searching her office? Annabeth was telling me—"**

**"Oh, I forgot. Annabeth will have a plan all figured out."**

Annabeth narrowed her eyes and hissed at Percy, who chuckled uncomfortably and hoped he would suddenly get the gift of invisibility

**"Don't be so hard on her, Percy. She's had a tough life, but she's a good person. After all, she forgave me..." His voice faltered.**

Thalia looked at Grover "It wasn't your fault, and besides I kind of like being a tree bird resting on my arms, squirrels doing unspeakable things in my roots…" Thalia shuddered at the last part "Point is stop blaming yourself, wasn't your fault you tried your best." Thalia comforted Grover who nodded thankful that she forgave him

**"What do you mean?" I asked. "Forgave you for what?"**

**Suddenly, Grover seemed very interested in playing notes on his pipes.**

**"Wait a minute," I said. "Your first keeper job was five years ago. Annabeth has been at camp five years. She wasn't ... I mean, your first assignment that went wrong—"**

"You know for a Seaweed Brain, you're quite smart." Nico stated

Percy puffed out his chest proudly

"For a seaweed brain of course." Thalia teased poking his arm as if she was trying to deflate him

**"I can't talk about it," Grover said, and his quivering lower lip suggested he'd start crying if I pressed him. "But as I was saying, back at Medusa's, Annabeth and I agreed there's something strange going on with this quest. Some thing isn't what it seems."**

**"Well, duh. I'm getting blamed for stealing a thunder bolt that Hades took."**

"I don't think Hades stole it, it clashes with the prophecy." Rachel closed her eyes in concentration

"Well this isn't freaking me out." Chris muttered

Percy and Annabeth frowned, how did Rachel know that?

"My father didn't do anything." Nico muttered before continuing

**"That's not what I mean," Grover said. "The Fur—The Kindly Ones were sort of holding back. Like Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy ... why did she wait so long to try to kill you? Then on the bus, they just weren't as aggressive as they could've been."**

"They tried to rip my face off, that wasn't aggressive at all." Percy said blandly

"True, the kindly ones are known for being cruel and heartless when it comes to torturing their enemies." Nico responded shrugging

Thalia shuddered having felt the full feeling of the Furies merciless

**"They seemed plenty aggressive to me."**

"Than you obviously haven't done anything to truly piss them off." Thalia muttered "Such as being born."

**Grover shook his head. "They were screeching at us: 'Where is it? Where?'"**

**"Asking about me," I said.**

"No, no matter what other's say you're not an _it_ so they should have been screaming he." Rachel mused the gears turning in her head

**"Maybe ... but Annabeth and I, we both got the feeling they weren't asking about a person. They said 'Where is _it_?' They seemed to be asking about an object."**

**"That doesn't make sense."**

"Maybe Hades doesn't have the Lightning bolt and he thinks that Percy has it so he's looking for Percy to get the bolt?" Rachel stated her thoughts

"Can you keep your thoughts to yourself? And it's kind of creepy that you know more about what's going on than we do, and we were there." Annabeth said questioning Rachel in her mind

**"I know. But if we've misunderstood something about this quest, and we only have nine days to find the master bolt..." He looked at me like he was hoping for answers, but I didn't have any.**

"You never do." Annabeth glanced at Percy

"Why should I have answers when I know you'll have them?" Percy looked at Annabeth fondly

**I thought about what Medusa had said: I was being used by the gods. What lay ahead of me was worse than petrification. "I haven't been straight with you," I told Grover. "I don't care about the master bolt. I agreed to go to the Underworld so I could bring back my mother."**

"You can't barter with Hades, he is heartless." Beckendorf shook his head

Nico looked at him about to protest "No offence." He said

"It's pretty hard not to be offended when people are referring to your father as a heartless jerk…even though it's true." Nico muttered the last part

**Grover blew a soft note on his pipes. "I know that, Percy. But are you sure that's the only reason?"**

**"I'm not doing it to help my father. He doesn't care about me. I don't care about him."**

"You're lying." Chris whispered knowing fully well how it felt to think that the gods didn't care about their kids

**Grover gazed down from his tree branch. "Look, Percy, I'm not as smart as Annabeth.**

"No one is as smart as Annabeth." Thalia rolled her eyes, making Annabeth grin proudly

**I'm not as brave as you. But I'm pretty good at reading emotions. You're glad your dad is alive. You feel good that he's claimed you, and part of you wants to make him proud. That's why you mailed Medusa's head to Olympus. You wanted him to notice what you'd done."**

"If I was Poseidon and my son sent me Medusa's head I would have smite you right there." Nico shook his head

"Good thing you're not Poseidon than." Percy grinned

Connor and Travis grinned at each other before dropping onto their knees in front of Nico who stared at them as if they were mental patients

"Oh great and mighty Poseidon, I am afraid thou son hast been sentenced with treason for attempted killing of thee with the head of the ugly maiden Medusa." Travis screamed

Nico stared at the two in disbelief "I hate to tell you this but Poseidon is Greek not English."

Connor and Travis gaped at him "Thou Poseidon speaks of lies!" Connor shrieked

"Okay we let you have your randomness fun, Nico read." Annabeth told Nico

**"Yeah? Well maybe satyr emotions work differently than human emotions. Because you're wrong. I don't care what he thinks."**

**Grover pulled his feet up onto the branch. "Okay, Percy. Whatever."**

**"Besides, I haven't done anything worth bragging about. We barely got out of New York and we're stuck here with no money and no way west."**

**Grover looked at the night sky, like he was thinking about that problem. "How about _I_ take first watch, huh? You get some sleep."**

**I wanted to protest, but he started to play Mozart, soft and sweet, and I turned away, my eyes stinging. After a few bars of Piano Concerto no. 12, I was asleep.**

**In my dreams, I stood in a dark cavern before a gaping pit.**

A few half-bloods gasped dramatically

"That's not…" Silena started horrified

**Gray mist creatures churned all around me, whispering rags of smoke that I somehow knew were the spirits of the dead.**

**They tugged at my clothes, trying to pull me back, but I felt compelled to walk forward to the very edge of the chasm.**

"Hades is helping you?" Rachel asked confused

"Seems so." Annabeth pursed her lips

**Looking down made me dizzy.**

**The pit yawned so wide and was so completely black, I knew it must be bottomless. Yet I had a feeling that some thing was trying to rise from the abyss, something huge and evil.**

Everyone paled at this, Silena shook like a leaf, fear in her eyes, the word traitor sang in her head

**_The __little __hero, _an amused voice echoed far down in the darkness. _Too __weak, __too __young, __but __perhaps __you __will __do._**

"No Percy don't listen to him!" Thalia gripped the real Percy's arm as if she were dragging him back

**The voice felt ancient—cold and heavy. It wrapped around me like sheets of lead.**

A few people shivered at the description

"When is the poodle going to come in?" Rachel's voice shook as she spoke

"Soon…I hope." Annabeth said

**_They __have __misled __you, __boy, _it said. _Barter __with __me. I __will __give __you __what __you __want._**

**A shimmering image hovered over the void: my mother, frozen at the moment she'd dissolved in a shower of gold. Her face was distorted with pain, as if the Minotaur were still squeezing her neck. Her eyes looked directly at me, pleading: _Go!_**

Everyone frowned at this, Kronos was a cruel and evil man, of course they already knew that but this was just plain mean

**I tried to cry out, but my voice wouldn't work.**

**Cold laughter echoed from the chasm.**

**An invisible force pulled me forward. It would drag me into the pit unless I stood firm.**

Annabeth's breath caught in her throat, that close to rising Kronos, that close.

**_Help __me __rise, __boy._The voice became hungrier. _Bring __me __the __bolt. __Strike __a __blow __against __the __treacherous __gods!_**

**The spirits of the dead whispered around me, _No! __Wake!_**

**The image of my mother began to fade. The thing in the pit tightened its unseen grip around me.**

**I realized it wasn't interested in pulling me in. It was using me to pull itself _out._**

**_Good, _it murmured. _Good._**

**_Wake! _the dead whispered. _Wake!_**

"Listen to the dead, Perce, they give really good advice." Nico urged

Percy's head snapped up at this "What about the evil king?" he asked

Nico scowled into the book "Doesn't count." He mumbled

**Someone was shaking me.**

**My eyes opened, and it was daylight.**

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief glad that that was over.

**"Well," Annabeth said, "the zombie lives."**

**I was trembling from the dream. I could still feel the grip of the chasm monster around my chest. "How long was I asleep?"**

**"Long enough for me to cook breakfast." Annabeth tossed me a bag of nacho-flavored corn chips from Aunty Em's snack bar. **

"Wow, it must have been so hard to cook that." Clarisse said sarcastically

"Better than anything I could have done." Travis muttered remembering the time he had blew up his marshmallow during one of the campfires

**"And Grover went exploring. Look, he found a friend."**

**My eyes had trouble focusing.**

**Grover was sitting cross-legged on a blanket with something fuzzy in his lap, a dirty, unnaturally pink stuffed animal.**

**No. It wasn't a stuffed animal. It was a pink poodle.**

Rachel and Grover frowned "I hate it when people do stuff like that to their pets." Rachel shook her head

**The poodle yapped at me suspiciously. Grover said, "No, he's not."**

"I never did ask, what did _pinkie_ ask about me?" Percy wondered

"Uh…Gladiola asked if you were-you know what I'm not allowed to use that language." Grover said, much to Percy's horror

"Percy's being trash talked by a poodle." Thalia snickered

**I blinked. "Are you ... talking to that thing?"**

**The poodle growled.**

**"This _thing_," Grover warned, "is our ticket west. Be nice to him."**

**"You can talk to animals?"**

**Grover ignored the question. "Percy, meet Gladiola. Gladiola, Percy."**

"Gladiola? What kind of name is Gladiola?" Clarisse said in disgust

"A name mortals, name their pink poodles." Grover replied earnestly

**I stared at Annabeth, figuring she'd crack up at this practical joke they were playing on me, but she looked deadly serious.**

**"I'm not saying hello to a pink poodle," I said. "Forget it."**

"Come on say hello to the pink fluffy poodle." Connor snickered

**"Percy," Annabeth said. "I said hello to the poodle. You say hello to the poodle."**

"I swear when you said that you were mentally laughing at me." Percy looked at Annabeth, who smiled secretively

**The poodle growled.**

**I said hello to the poodle.**

"Good boy." Annabeth patted Percy on the head

"Yeah Percy do you want a dog treat to?" Clarisse laughed

**Grover ****explained ****that ****he'd ****come ****across ****Gladiola ****in ****the ****woods ****and ****they'd ****struck ****up ****a ****conversation. ****The ****poodle ****had ****run ****away ****from ****a ****rich ****local ****family, ****who'd ****posted ****a ****$200 ****reward ****for ****his ****return. ****Gladiola ****didn't****r eally ****want ****to ****go ****back ****to ****his f****amily,** **but ****he ****was ****willing ****to ****if ****it ****meant ****helping ****Grover.**

"Wait a minute was there a he in that sentence?" Chris asked horrified

"Yup…" Percy puffed out his cheeks with air

"Gods this is awkward isn't it?" Thalia asked no one in particular

**"How does Gladiola know about the reward?" I asked.**

**"He read the signs," Grover said. "Duh."**

**"Of course," I said. "Silly me."**

"Yes, silly you, you should have done that it was Poodle 101." Travis said seriously

**"So we turn in Gladiola," Annabeth explained in her best strategy voice, "we get money, and we buy tickets to Los Angeles. Simple."**

"Let me guess it didn't turn out to be simple." Rachel sighed when the three nodded grimly

**I thought about my dream—the whispering voices of the dead, the thing in the chasm, and my mother's face, shimmering as it dissolved into gold. All that might be waiting for me in the West.**

**"Not another bus," I said warily.**

**"No," Annabeth agreed.**

**She pointed downhill, toward train tracks I hadn't been able to see last night in the dark. "There's an Amtrak station half a mile that way. According to Gladiola, the west bound train leaves at noon."**

"The end." Nico finished "Who knew poodles could be so helpful?"

"I personally have always known that poodles were brilliant and would one day lead the world into a new era of peace and pink fluffiness." Connor announced

"Of course you did." Thalia rolled her eyes taking the book right out of Nico's hands "I'll read."

**Who do you prefer Luke or Hermes?**

**You see I want to add 6 new characters to my story and I basically already know which characters I'm going to add, but one of the highest votes are Luke but I came to realize that if Luke is added to the story it will become kind of depressing and more angst than humorous but if Hermes is added it can still be funny but it can also be sad at times when he learns about Luke's future. So please vote.**


	15. I Plunge to my Death

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson or any of its characters. **

**Please review, suggestions are all welcomed, flames make me happy, and compliments make me scream with joy!**

**Poll on my profile please vote for up to 6 characters I should add in my story.**

**Just a side note this is all cannon meaning no "Thalico" no "Prachel", no any of the non cannon pairings. **

**Chapter Thirteen **

"**I ****Plunge ****to ****my ****Death****"**

"**I ****Plunge ****to ****my ****Death,"** Thalia read

"Why can't you have a nice chapter title for once, like I chase unicorns into the never land rainbow?" Grover frowned

"If that's really one of the chapter titles, I will either A. wonder about Percy's sexuality, just like I'm doing to you right now or B. Die from shock." Thalia replied

**We spent two days on the Amtrak train, heading west through hills, over rivers, past amber waves of grain.**

"Oh purple mountain majesties, above the fruited plain! America! America-"Travis sang

"Okay we get it, America's beautiful; you don't need to sing the entire song!" Chris shook his head trying to get Travis' horrendous singing out of his head

**We weren't attacked once, but I didn't relax.**

"If I were you, I wouldn't have relaxed either…ever, because seriously you have the worst luck ever." Nico stated truthfully

**I felt that we were traveling around in a display case, being watched from above and maybe from below, that something was waiting for the right opportunity.**

**I tried to keep a low profile because my name and picture were splattered over the front pages of several East Coast newspapers. The _Trenton __Register-News _showed a photo taken by a tourist as I got off the Greyhound bus. I had a wild look in my eyes. My sword was a metallic blur in my hands. It might've been a baseball bat or a lacrosse stick.**

"Wow, great job Sherlock, now all of America has a picture of you that should make the quest very easy." Clarisse said sarcastically

"Well…I'm alive aren't I?" Percy muttered the last part unable to think of a clear arguement

**The picture's caption read:**

_**Twelve-year-old Percy Jackson, wanted for questioning in the Long Island disappearance of his mother two weeks ago, is shown here fleeing from the bus where he accosted several elderly female passengers.**_

Clarisse snickered loudly

"Something funny?" Thalia narrowed her eyes at her

"No, it's just with Prissy's luck it would make sense for everyone to see him attacking several kind elderly passengers." Clarisse said

Percy pretended to look hurt "My luck is not _that_ bad."

"Yes but it is pretty bad." Annabeth pointed out

_**The bus exploded on an east New Jersey roadside shortly after Jackson fled the scene. Based on eyewitness accounts, police believe the boy may be traveling with two teenage accomplices. His stepfather, Gabe Ugliano, has offered a cash reward for information leading to his capture.**_

"How much money did he offer, 2 bucks?" Connor asked

"No…it was probably 2 cents." Travis said

**"Don't worry," Annabeth told me. "Mortal police could never find us." But she didn't sound so sure.**

**The rest of the day I spent alternately pacing the length of the train (because I had a really hard time sitting still) or looking out the windows.**

**Once, I spotted a family of centaurs galloping across a wheat field, bows at the ready, as they hunted lunch.**

"Just out of curiosity what were they hunting for lunch on a wheat field?" Rachel asked

"Probably cute little bunnies and other adorable little animals." Clarisse said enjoying the look on Rachel's face as she paled

**The little boy centaur, who was the size of a second-grader on a pony, caught my eye and waved. **

"Aw, how cute, miniature centaurs!" Silena cooed

**I looked around the passenger car, but nobody else had noticed. The adult riders all had their faces buried in laptop computers or magazines.**

**Another time, toward evening, I saw something huge moving through the woods. I could've sworn it was a lion, except that lions don't live wild in America, and this thing was the size of a Hummer. Its fur glinted gold in the evening light. Then it leaped through the trees and was gone.**

"The Nemean Lion! Seriously that early?" Thalia raised an eyebrow, unable to believe this boy's luck

**Our reward money for returning Gladiola the poodle had only been enough to purchase tickets as far as Denver. We couldn't get berths in the sleeper car, so we dozed in our seats. My neck got stiff. I tried not to drool in my sleep, since Annabeth was sitting right next to me.**

Thalia wisely decided not to comment on that, but of course it was all for Annabeth's sake of course.

"How CUTE!" Silena squealed destroying several eardrums across the room "You wanted to make a good impression on the future love of your life!"

Percy and Annabeth both turned beet red at this much to everyone's amusement

"I didn't know half-bloods could turn that color." Tyson stared as if in a trance

**Grover kept snoring and bleating and waking me up. Once, he shuffled around and his fake foot fell off. Annabeth and I had to stick it back on before any of the other passengers noticed.**

Everyone couldn't help but laugh at the mental image of that.

"Sorry." Grover blushed, Percy and Annabeth both shook their heads at him

**"So," Annabeth asked me, once _we'd_gotten Grover's sneaker readjusted. "Who wants your help?"**

**"What do you mean?"**

**"When you were asleep just now, you mumbled, 'I won't help you.' Who were you dreaming about?"**

"Why do you know what he was dreaming about, were you watching him?" Connor asked putting his face right next to Annabeth's

"No, I was sitting right next to him, and he was talking very loud." Annabeth said pushing Connor away

**I was reluctant to say anything. It was the second time I'd dreamed about the evil voice from the pit.**

**But it bothered me so much I finally told her.**

"Good boy, you tell everything to you wife." Silena patted Percy's cheek much to his embarrassment

"She's not my wife." Percy sputtered

**Annabeth was quiet for a long time. "That doesn't sound like Hades. He always appears on a black throne, and he never laughs."**

Nico couldn't help but raise his head at that "My father so does laugh…it's just more of a evil laugh instead of a laugh that a normal happy father should have."

**"He offered my mother in trade. Who else could do that?"**

**"I guess ... if he meant, 'Help me rise from the Underworld.' If he wants war with the Olympians. But why ask you to bring him the master bolt if he already has it?"**

Rachel scrunched her nose up, 'Was it just her, or was there loopholes in the story?"

"Hades, didn't really steal the bolt, did he?" she asked timidly

Thalia looked at her for a second as if she were a bug she was going to squash "No, he didn't, Kronos did."

"Oh…well that's lovely. Thank you for having me informed." Rachel muttered

**I shook my head, wishing I knew the answer. I thought about what Grover had told me, that the Furies on the bus seemed to have been looking for something.**

_**Where is it? Where?**_

**Maybe Grover sensed my emotions. He snorted in his sleep, muttered something about vegetables, and turned his head.**

**Annabeth readjusted his cap so it covered his horns. "Percy, you can't barter with Hades. You know that, right? He's deceitful, heartless, and greedy.**

"Again, I will try not to be offended by that, even though I am dying on the inside." Nico said stiffly

"Was I wrong?" Annabeth asked

"Well, no but it's still not nice to hear people referring to your father as 'deceitful, heartless, and greedy'." Nico mumbled

**I don't care if his Kindly Ones weren't as aggressive this time—"**

**"This time?" I asked. "You mean you've run into them before?"**

"Yes, she just did actually 2 days ago, you were there remember?" Travis said innocently

"That's not what I meant, and you know it." Percy narrowed his eyes at him angrily

**Her hand crept up to her necklace. She fingered a glazed white bead painted with the image of a pine tree, one of her clay end-of-summer tokens. **

Thalia closed her eyes and leaned back into her seat with a hint of an insane smile on her face, 'Five years she was a tree, maybe if she hadn't been turned into a tree, Luke could still be Luke, she might not be a hunter and…' she closed her eyes again willing herself not to think thoughts like this

**"Let's just say I've got no love for the Lord of the Dead. You can't be tempted to make a deal for your mom."**

**"What would you do if it was your dad?"**

**"That's easy," she said. "I'd leave him to rot."**

Everyone stared at Annabeth

"It's not true anymore." Annabeth muttered touching the ring around her neck

**"You're not serious?"**

**Annabeth's gray eyes fixed on me. She wore the same expression she'd worn in the woods at camp, the moment she drew her sword against the hellhound. "My dad's resented me since the day I was born, Percy," she said. "He never wanted a baby. When he got me, he asked Athena to take me back and raise me on Olympus because he was too busy with his work. She wasn't happy about that. She told him heroes had to be raised by their mortal parent."**

**"But how ... I mean, I guess you weren't born in a hospital..."**

"Please do NOT ask about that, I do not want details about how Annabeth was born!" Beckendorf said in disgust

**"I appeared on my father's doorstep, in a golden cradle, carried down from Olympus by Zephyr the West Wind. You'd think my dad would remember that as a miracle, right? Like, maybe he'd take some digital photos or some thing. But he always talked about my arrival as if it were the most inconvenient thing that had ever happened to him. When I was five he got married and totally forgot about Athena. He got a 'regular' mortal wife, and had two 'regular' mortal kids, and tried to pretend I didn't exist."**

Annabeth clenched her jaw

"Things weren't really like that were they?" Rachel asked

"It was the way I remembered it, but things are _better_now." Annabeth sighed

**I stared out the train window. The lights of a sleeping town were drifting by. I wanted to make Annabeth feel better, but I didn't know how.**

**"My ****mom ****married ****a ****really ****awful ****guy," ****I ****told ****her.**

"That's how you make her feel better? Seriously, you tried to make someone feel better by telling her about your own misery!" Thalia hissed

"I was twelve, and next time wait for me to finish a sentence before you criticize me." Percy motioned for her to continue

**"Grover said she did it to protect me, to hide me in the scent of a human family. Maybe that's what your dad was thinking."**

**Annabeth kept worrying at her necklace. She was pinching the gold college ring that hung with the beads. It occurred to me that the ring must be her father's. I wondered why she wore it if she hated him so much.**

"Because you can't truly hate family, no matter what they do to you, and how they treat you, they're your family." Annabeth whispered

**"He doesn't care about me," she said. "His wife—my stepmom—treated me like a freak. She wouldn't let me play with her children. My dad went along with her. Whenever something dangerous happened—you know, something with monsters—they would both look at me resentfully, like, 'How dare you put our family at risk.' Finally, I took the hint. I wasn't wanted. I ran away."**

**"How old were you?"**

**"Same age as when I started camp. Seven."**

"Seven? That's impressive. I mean I know you're a daughter of Athena and all which gives you a giant brain, but to travel across America as a 7 year old, that's impressive." Beckendorf said impressed

Annabeth smiled sadly "I had some help."

**"But ... you couldn't have gotten all the way to Half-Blood Hill by yourself."**

**"Not alone, no. Athena watched over me, guided me toward help. I made a couple of unexpected friends who took care of me, for a short time, anyway."**

Thalia and Annabeth both smiled at each other although it didn't reach their eyes, maybe they were both thinking about another friend of theirs

**I wanted to ask what happened, but Annabeth seemed lost in sad memories. So I listened to the sound of Grover snoring and gazed out the train windows as the dark fields of Ohio raced by.**

**Toward the end of our second day on the train, June 13, eight days before the summer solstice, we passed through some golden hills and over the Mississippi River into St. Louis. Annabeth craned her neck to see the Gateway Arch, which looked to me like a huge shopping bag handle stuck on the city.**

Annabeth couldn't help but feel slightly offended that Seaweed brain had just called one of the most amazing architectural pieces ever a 'huge shopping bag handle'.

**"I want to do that," she sighed.**

**"What?" I asked.**

**"Build something like that. You ever see the Parthenon, Percy?"**

**"Only in pictures."**

**"Someday, I'm going to see it in person. I'm going to build the greatest monument to the gods, ever. Something that'll last a thousand years."**

**I laughed. "You? An architect?"**

"And just what was that suppose to mean?" Annabeth narrowed her eyes

"Nothing." Percy said quickly

**I don't know why, but I found it funny. Just the idea of Annabeth trying to sit quietly and draw all day.**

"Technically none of us can do that, ADHD and dyslexia remember?"

**Her cheeks flushed. "Yes, an architect. Athena expects her children to create things, not just tear them down, like a certain god of earthquakes I could mention."**

Percy pouted at Annabeth "Well that was rude." He huffed

Annabeth sighed "I'm sorry."

"If you bake me blue cookies, I'll forgive you!" Percy said cheering up

"Yeah, I don't think so." Annabeth rolled her eyes

**I watched the churning brown water of the Mississippi below.**

**"Sorry," Annabeth said. "That was mean."**

**"Can't we work together a little?" I pleaded. "I mean, didn't Athena and Poseidon ever cooperate?"**

Thalia raised her eyebrows until they were practically at her hairline "Percy was the one who offered peace?" she said bewildered as if someone had just told her Clarisse was actually a daughter of Aphrodite

"It was one of my darkest moments." Annabeth pretended to sigh sadly

"You know it's amazing how much I can be hurt in one day, and not explode." Percy muttered

**Annabeth had to think about it. "I guess ... the chariot," she said tentatively. "My mom invented it, but Poseidon created horses out of the crests of waves. So they had to work together to make it complete."**

**"Then we can cooperate, too. Right?"**

"A little more than your parents would have wanted I suppose." Silena giggled

**We rode into the city, Annabeth watching as the Arch disappeared behind a hotel.**

**"I suppose," she said at last.**

**We pulled into the Amtrak station downtown. The intercom told us we'd have a three-hour layover before departing for Denver.**

**Grover stretched. Before he was even fully awake, he said, "Food."**

"Why does that not surprise me that the first thing Goat boy says when he gets up is 'food'?" Thalia asked

**"Come on, goat boy," Annabeth said. "Sightseeing."**

**"Sightseeing?"**

**"The Gateway Arch," she said. "This may be my only chance to ride to the top. Are you coming or not?"**

**Grover and I exchanged looks.**

**I wanted to say no, but I figured that if Annabeth was going, we couldn't very well let her go alone.**

**Grover shrugged. "As long as there's a snack bar without monsters."**

Nico looked horrified "You do realize you just jinxed yourself right?" he said pleasantly

"Yup." Grover said making sure to pop the P

**The Arch was about a mile from the train station. Late in the day the lines to get in weren't that long. We threaded our way through the underground museum, looking at covered wagons and other junk from the 1800s. It wasn't all that thrilling, but Annabeth kept telling us interesting facts about how the Arch was built, and Grover kept passing me jelly beans, so I was okay.**

"Jellybeans always make everything better doesn't it?" Percy smiled goofily "Especially the blue ones." He sighed blissfully starring at the ceiling

**I kept looking around, though, at the other people in line. "You smell anything?" I murmured to Grover.**

**He took his nose out of the jelly-bean bag long enough to sniff. "Underground," he said distastefully. "Under ground air always smells like monsters. Probably doesn't mean anything."**

**Everyone groaned **

"Of course there's a monster, when you spell spaghetti it means there's spaghetti, when you smell monsters it mean there's a monster!" Clarisse nearly shrieked

"I hope you realize you just compared an evil disgusting creature to a pile of deliciousness." Nico said his eyes glazing over at the mention of food

**But something felt wrong to me. I had a feeling we shouldn't be here.**

"Instincts Percy, Instincts you must always follow them." Chris said seriously

**"Guys," I said. "You know the gods' symbols of power?"**

**Annabeth had been in the middle of reading about the construction equipment used to build the Arch, but she looked over. "Yeah?"**

**"Well, Hade—"**

**Grover cleared his throat. "We're in a public place... You mean, our friend downstairs?"**

"Does he means my friend from downstairs who just happens to be hu-" Connor began spreading his arms wide as if to indicate this is how big it is

Thalia groaned loudly "Only you would make a perverted joke about this!"

"What? I was talking about the rat who lives right under my bunk who happens to be huge. What did you think I was talking about?" Connor asked confused

"Oh, nothing, nothing, I'm just going to read now." Thalia muttered

**"Um, right," I said. "Our friend _way_downstairs. Doesn't he have a hat like Annabeth's?"**

"Yeah except it's several thousand times more powerful than Annabeth's invisibility hat." Beckendorf said

**"You mean the Helm of Darkness," Annabeth said. "Yeah, that's his symbol of power. I saw it next to his seat during the winter solstice council meeting."**

**"He was there?" I asked.**

**She nodded. "It's the only time he's allowed to visit Olympus—the darkest day of the year. But his helm is a lot more powerful than my invisibility hat, if what I've heard is true..."**

**"It allows him to become darkness," Grover confirmed. "He can melt into shadow or pass through walls. He can't be touched, or seen, or heard. And he can radiate fear so intense it can drive you insane or stop your heart. Why do you think all rational creatures fear the dark?"**

**"But ****then****...****how ****do ****we ****know ****he's ****not ****here ****right ****now, ****watching ****us?" ****I ****asked.**

**Annabeth and Grover exchanged looks. **

**"We don't," Grover said.**

"Well thanks, that didn't just make my heart stop for a second." Travis glanced around as if half expecting Hades to jump out right now

"The idea that the greasy haired freak could be watching us right now gives me the creeps." Thalia shivered

"I'm sure the lord of the dead has much more important things to be doing right now than watching a bunch of teenagers read a book about a way to arrogant guy, such as taxing the dead." Nico nodded

"And besides I seriously doubt Hades is a stalker…no matter how creepy he is." Grover added in the last part

**"Thanks, that makes me feel a lot better," I said. "Got any blue jelly beans left?"**

Everyone couldn't help but chuckle at Percy's bluntness

**I'd almost mastered my jumpy nerves when I saw the tiny little elevator car we were going to ride to the top of the Arch, and I knew I was in trouble. I hate confined places. They make me nuts.**

"Me too, claustrophobic." Nico nodded solemnly

**We got shoehorned into the car with this big fat lady and her dog, a Chihuahua with a rhinestone collar. I figured maybe the dog was a seeing-eye Chihuahua, because none of the guards said a word about it.**

"Well she's definitely a monster, the first weird thing you see you have to be alert because who knows what kind of monster they might be." Thalia told Percy

"What so every time I see someone doing something weird I have to attack them?" Percy stated

"Yeah, with your luck pretty much." Nico nodded

"I don't think Chihuahuas are even allowed to be used as a seeing-eye dog, they're too small, if a blind person walks into traffic Chihuahuas will be to small to stop them." Annabeth asked questioning on why she hadn't suspected that it was Echidna

**We started going up, inside the Arch. I'd never been in an elevator that went in a curve, and my stomach wasn't too happy about it.**

**"No parents?" the fat lady asked us.**

**She had beady eyes; pointy, coffee-stained teeth; a floppy denim hat, and a denim dress that bulged so much, she looked like a blue-jean blimp.**

"Well doesn't she sound attractive?" Connor asked sarcastically

**"They're below," Annabeth told her. "Scared of heights."**

**"Oh, the poor darlings."**

"I thought after that very nice meeting with Alecto in the beginning of the book you would have realized that anyone who called you honey or darling or anything else that's close to that, they're a monster." Nico said

"But my mom calls me that sometimes." Percy pouted

Several people snickered "Mama's boy." Clarisse muttered

**The Chihuahua growled. The woman said, "Now, now, sonny. Behave." The dog had beady eyes like its owner, intelligent and vicious.**

"Well you know what they say, a dog reflects its owner." Chris smiled grimly

**I said, "Sonny. Is that his name?"**

**"No," the lady told me.**

**She smiled, as if that cleared everything up.**

"That should have told you right away that she was a monster, when someone calls their dog sonny than smiles at you all creepy like that's usually a good time to run." Annabeth advised Percy

"Yeah but how many old hags with a Chihuahua are you going to see in your life time?" Thalia argued before continuing

**At the top of the Arch, the observation deck reminded me of a tin can with carpeting. Rows of tiny windows looked out over the city on one side and the river on the other. The view was okay, but if there's anything I like less than a confined space, it's a confined space six hundred feet in the air. I was ready to go pretty quick.**

**Annabeth kept talking about structural supports, and how she would've made the windows bigger, and designed a see-through floor.**

Thalia paled at that, 'a see through floor what was she thinking?'

**She probably could've stayed up there for hours, but luckily for me the park ranger announced that the observation deck would be closing in a few minutes.**

**I steered Grover and Annabeth toward the exit, loaded them into the elevator, and I was about to get in myself when I realized there were already two other tourists inside. No room for me.**

**The park ranger said, "Next car, sir."**

**"We'll get out," Annabeth said. "We'll wait with you."**

**But that was going to mess everybody up and take even more time, so I said, "Naw, it's okay. I'll see you guys at the bottom."**

"No! You never separate from the group don't you watch horror movies? That's how the characters always die, picked off one by one by monsters." Thalia panicked

**Grover and Annabeth both looked nervous, but they let the elevator door slide shut. Their car disappeared down the ramp.**

**Now the only people left on the observation deck were me, a little boy with his parents, the park ranger, and the fat lady with her Chihuahua.**

**I smiled uneasily at the fat lady. She smiled back, her forked tongue flickering between her teeth.**

Everyone suddenly jumped up and became alert, 'A forked tongue? Looks like they were about to have a huge fight'

**Wait a minute.**

**Forked tongue?**

**Before I could decide if I'd really seen that, her Chihuahua jumped down and started yapping at me.**

"This brings me a whole new view of Chihuahuas." Rachel sighed "I mean I never liked them in the first place due to the fact that they live in rich girl's purses but Chihuahuas are actually monsters in disguise, that's new."

**"Now, now, sonny," the lady said. "Does this look like a good time? We have all these nice people here."**

"Percy get out now, there are innocent people in there!" Annabeth urged

"What did you expect me to do I was several hundred feet to high in the air!" Percy said

**"Doggie!" said the little boy. "Look, a doggie!"**

**His parents pulled him back.**

**The Chihuahua bared his teeth at me, foam dripping from his black lips.**

**"Well, son," the fat lady sighed. "If you insist."**

**Ice started forming in my stomach. "Urn, did you just call that Chihuahua your son?"**

**_"Chimera, _dear," the fat lady corrected. "Not a Chihuahua. It's an easy mistake to make."**

"Echidna with her Chimera/Chihuahua this should be interesting." Thalia said leaning back unable to hide a flash of worry that appeared

**She rolled up her denim sleeves, revealing that the skin of her arms was scaly and green. When she smiled, I saw that her teeth were fangs. The pupils of her eyes were side ways slits, like a reptile's.**

"Gods this is like a stupid Hollywood movie." Clarisse shook her head in disgust

"Well monsters are known for being dramatic." Nico pointed out

**The Chihuahua barked louder, and with each bark, it grew. First to the size of a Doberman, then to a lion. The bark became a roar.**

**The little boy screamed. His parents pulled him back toward the exit, straight into the park ranger, who stood, paralyzed, gaping at the monster.**

**The Chimera was now so tall its back rubbed against the roof. It had the head of a lion with a blood-caked mane, the body and hooves of a giant goat, and a serpent for a tail, a ten-foot-long diamondback growing right out of its shaggy behind. The rhinestone dog collar still hung around its neck, and the plate-sized dog tag was now easy to read: CHIMERA—RABID, FIRE-BREATHING, POISONOUS—IF FOUND, PLEASE CALL TARTARUS—EXT. 954.**

"You actually stopped to read it?" Annabeth asked calmly

"Um…yeah?" Percy squeaked

"You idiot!" Annabeth shrieked "Those seconds you took to read it could have killed you!"

"How did you even read it, Percy? Aren't you dyslexia?" Rachel asked curious

Percy paused glancing at Annabeth who was still fuming "I honestly don't know, maybe it was because of the life threatening danger that suddenly gave me the ability to read."

**I realized I hadn't even uncapped my sword. My hands were numb. I was ten feet away from the Chimera's bloody maw, and I knew that as soon as I moved, the creature would lunge.**

**The snake lady made a hissing noise that might've been laughter. "Be honored, Percy Jackson. Lord Zeus rarely allows me to test a hero with one of my brood. For I am the Mother of Monsters, the terrible Echidna!"**

"Yes, because you should really be honored that the 'terrible Echidna' is going to try to kill you." Nico said

**I stared at her. All I could think to say was: "Isn't that a kind of anteater?"**

"You really have a natural skill for pissing off all powerful immortal beings you know that right." Annabeth said

"Out of all the amazing comebacks you could have said, you seriously called her an anteater?" Rachel raised her eyebrows

Percy blushed "I was scared, my brain wasn't functioning correctly."

**She howled, her reptilian face turning brown and green with rage. "I hate it when people say that! I hate Australia! Naming that ridiculous animal after me. For that, Percy Jackson, my son shall destroy you!"**

"Just out of curiosity how did she give birth to a Chihuahua?" Nico asked curious

"Do you really want to have that talk again?" Percy paled

"Err…no thanks." Nico muttered

**The Chimera charged, its lion teeth gnashing. I managed to leap aside and dodge the bite.**

**I ended up next to the family and the park ranger, who were all screaming now, trying to pry open the emergency exit doors.**

**I couldn't let them get hurt. I uncapped my sword, ran to the other side of the deck, and yelled, "Hey, Chihuahua!" The Chimera turned faster than I would've thought possible.**

**Before I could swing my sword, it opened its mouth, emitting a stench like the world's largest barbecue pit, and shot a column of flame straight at me.**

"Just what I need right than, it breathed fire." Percy shook his head

**I dove through the explosion. The carpet burst into flames; the heat was so intense, it nearly seared off my eye brows.**

**Where I had been standing a moment before was a ragged hole in the side of the Arch, with melted metal steaming around the edges.**

**Great, I thought. We just blowtorched a national monument.**

"Guess that architectural monument didn't last a thousand years." Nico chuckled

**Riptide was now a shining bronze blade in my hands, and as the Chimera turned, I slashed at its neck.**

"The dog collar!" groaned

**That was my fatal mistake. The blade sparked harmlessly off the dog collar. I tried to regain my balance, but I was so worried about defending myself against the fiery lion's mouth, I completely forgot about the serpent tail until it whipped around and sank its fangs into my calf.**

"Ouch, that's gotta hurt." Chris winced

"Let me guess it was poisonous too wasn't it?" Rachel sighed

"Well the collar did say it was poisonous, fire breathing, and rabid." Percy attempted

**My whole leg was on fire. I tried to jab Riptide into the Chimera's mouth, but the serpent tail wrapped around my ankles and pulled me off balance, and my blade flew out of my hand, spinning out of the hole in the Arch and down toward the Mississippi River.**

"You lost your weapon to, how did you survive?" Thalia stared at him

"Well the title does say I plunge to my death." Percy smiled cheerfully

Several people had heart attacks and feel out of their chairs because of this

**I managed to get to my feet, but I knew I had lost. I was weaponless. I could feel deadly poison racing up to my chest. I remembered Chiron saying that Anaklusmos would always return to me, but there was no pen in my pocket. Maybe it had fallen too far away. Maybe it only returned when it was in pen form. I didn't know, and I wasn't going to live long enough to figure it out.**

"Water, Percy, water." Annabeth said practically on the edge of her seat

"The advice is 4 years to late." Percy sighed

**I backed into the hole in the wall. The Chimera advanced, growling, smoke curling from its lips. The snake lady, Echidna, cackled. "They don't make heroes like they used to, eh, son?"**

"What you mean arrogant, insane, and heart breakers?" Thalia spat remembering Zoë

**The monster growled. It seemed in no hurry to finish me off now that I was beaten.**

**I glanced at the park ranger and the family. The little boy was hiding behind his father's legs. I had to protect these people. I couldn't just ... die.**

Everyone couldn't help but smile at Percy

"Noble." Nico muttered, knowing that this is something he would never be

**I tried to think, but my whole body was on fire. My head felt dizzy. I had no sword. I was facing a massive, fire-breathing monster and its mother. And I was scared.**

**There was no place else to go, so I stepped to the edge of the hole. Far, far below, the river glittered.**

"Jump." Annabeth urged

**If I died, would the monsters go away? Would they leave the humans alone?**

"Probably, monsters don't have time to kill humans; they probably just think that the mist will take care of everything." Beckendorf said

**"If you are the son of Poseidon," Echidna hissed, "you would not fear water. Jump, Percy Jackson. Show me that water will not harm you. Jump and retrieve your sword. Prove your bloodline."**

**Yeah, right, I thought. I'd read somewhere that jumping into water from a couple of stories up was like jumping onto solid asphalt. From here, I'd splatter on impact.**

"Splat." Tyson said sadly

"You wouldn't die the water would catch you and it'd probably be like landing in a nice big fluffy cloud." Thalia sighed

"But aren't clouds made up of water, and wouldn't I just fall right through and land on earth?" Percy asked bewildered

"Do you have to be such a pessimist!" Thalia hissed

**The Chimera's mouth glowed red, heating up for an other blast.**

**"You have no faith," Echidna told me. "You do not trust the gods. I cannot blame you, little coward. Better you die now. The gods are faithless. The poison is in your heart."**

**She was right: I was dying. I could feel my breath slowing down. Nobody could save me, not even the gods.**

Everyone stared at Thalia waiting for her to read the next line, completely memorized by now

**I backed up and looked down at the water. I remembered the warm glow of my father's smile when I was a baby. He must have seen me. He must have visited me when I was in my cradle.**

**I remembered the swirling green trident that had appeared above my head the night of capture the flag, when Poseidon had claimed me as his son.**

**But this wasn't the sea. This was the Mississippi, dead center of the USA. There was no Sea God here.**

"Your father would have killed the water nymphs if they just let you die, jump!" Annabeth screamed

**"Die, faithless one," Echidna rasped, and the Chimera sent a column of flame toward my face.**

**"Father, help me," I prayed.**

"He will." Thalia said surely

**I turned and jumped. My clothes on fire, poison coursing through my veins, I plummeted toward the river.**

"End of chapter." Thalia muttered

"Woo, well that was dramatic." Connor said pretending to wipe sweat off his forehead

"Who wants to read?" Thalia asked holding the book into the air

"I'll do it." Annabeth offered taking he book and flipping to the next chapter

**Just out of curiosity what is everyone being for Halloween this year?**

**I'm being a cereal killer (Get it?) Please review and vote on my profile which 6 characters I should add to my story.**


	16. I Become a Known Fugitive

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson or any of its characters. **

**Please review, suggestions are all welcomed, flames make me happy, and compliments make me scream with joy!**

**Poll on my profile please vote for up to 6 characters I should add in my story.**

**Chapter fourteen **

"**I Become a Known Fugitive"**

**I ****Become ****a ****Known ****Fugitive,"**Annabeth read

"That's something that'll be great to mention at the dinner table 20 years later." Chris winced

**I'd love to tell you I had some deep revelation on my way down, that I came to terms with my own mortality, laughed in the face of death, etcetera.**

"You're lying, no one can do that." Annabeth rolled her eyes

"I can." Nico smirked

**The truth? My only thought was: Aaaaggghhhhh!**

"Really that was your only thought? If it was me there would be a really colorful rainbow of words mixed in there too." Connor announced

**The river raced toward me at the speed of a truck. Wind ripped the breath from my lungs. Steeples and skyscrapers and bridges tumbled in and out of my vision.**

**And then: _Flaaa-boooom!_**

**A whiteout of bubbles. I sank through the murk, sure that I was about to end up embedded in a hundred feet of mud and lost forever.**

**But my impact with the water hadn't hurt.**

"No, really, I mean being a son of Poseidon the god of water, hitting water should really hurt." Thalia rolled her eyes, sarcasm dripping from her words

**I was falling slowly now, bubbles trickling up through my fingers. I settled on the river bottom soundlessly. A catfish the size of my stepfather lurched away into the gloom.**

"That's one big catfish." Rachel nodded appreciatively

"The size of your stepfather…" Tyson gaped unable to imagine catfish so big

**Clouds of silt and disgusting garbage—beer bottles, old shoes, plastic bags—swirled up all around me.**

Percy and all of the nature activist frowned at this

"Gross." Silena muttered

"Humans, throwing their stupid trash into the water, why can they just eat their trash like we do?" Grover ranted

**At that point, I realized a few things: first, I had not been flattened into a pancake. **

"Pancake Percy." Nico chuckled to himself

**I had not been barbecued. I couldn't even feel the Chimera poison boiling in my veins anymore. I was alive, which was good.**

"Very good." Tyson muttered

"Water can even remove poison…that's impressive." Clarisse said with a grudging admiration

**Second realization: I wasn't wet. I mean, I could feel the coolness of the water. I could see where the fire on my clothes had been quenched. But when I touched my own shirt, it felt perfectly dry.**

"Does that mean if you ever go swimming you'll come out perfectly dry?" Nico asked

"I can become wet if I want to, it's just I remain dry unless I don't want to." Percy told him

**I looked at the garbage floating by and snatched an old cigarette lighter.**

**No way, I thought.**

**I flicked the lighter. It sparked. A tiny flame appeared, right there at the bottom of the Mississippi.**

"Sweet." Nico muttered and everyone agreed

**I grabbed a soggy hamburger wrapper out of the current and immediately the paper turned dry.**

"It turned dry, like it actually became none wet?" Beckendorf raised an eyebrow impressed

"Yeah, I think that's what the meaning of dry means." Percy laughed

**I lit it with no problem. As soon as I let it go, the flames sputtered out. The wrapper turned back into a slimy rag. Weird.**

**But the strangest thought occurred to me only last: I was breathing. I was underwater, and I was breathing normally.**

"Seriously, that's the last thing you notice, you discovered that soggy hamburger wrappings would turn dry when you touch them before you find that you're breathing underwater?" Annabeth asked exasperated

"Hey I just nearly died, excuse my mind for being slightly slow." Percy argued

**I stood up, thigh-deep in mud. My legs felt shaky. My hands trembled. I should've been dead. **

"Well if you think of things like that than you should've been dead for 100 times." Thalia pointed out

**The fact that I wasn't seemed like ... well, a miracle. I imagined a woman's voice, a voice that sounded a bit like my mother: _Percy,__what__do__you__say?_**

**"Um ... thanks." Underwater, I sounded like I did on recordings, like a much older kid. "Thank you ... Father."**

**No response. Just the dark drift of garbage downriver, the enormous catfish gliding by, the flash of sunset on the water's surface far above, turning everything the color of butterscotch.**

**Why had Poseidon saved me?**

"Because he's your father, and he loves you." Rachel answered

**The more I thought about it, the more ashamed I felt. So I'd gotten lucky a few times before. Against a thing like the Chimera, I had never stood a chance.**

"You know what's something I just realized? During the fight Echidna was literally telling Percy to jump into the water, and if she meant to kill him why not attack him somewhere else where there is no water." Annabeth concluded

"Maybe Echidna had orders not to really kill him otherwise Zeus would never get his lightning bolt back…or maybe Echidna grew a heart and decided to spare a half-bloods life." Thalia said realizing the second reason was about as possible as pigs flying

**Those poor people in the Arch were probably toast. I couldn't protect them. I was no hero. Maybe I should just stay down here with the catfish, join the bottom feeders.**

Thalia groaned "You make it so hard to be supportive when you say things like that!"

**_Fump-fump-fump._ A riverboat's paddlewheel churned above me, swirling the silt around.**

**There, not five feet in front of me, was my sword, its gleaming bronze hilt sticking up in the mud.**

"Riptide!" Tyson announced

**I heard that woman's voice again: _Percy, __take __the __sword. __Your __father __believes __in __you._This time, I knew the voice wasn't in my head. I wasn't imagining it. Her words seemed to come from everywhere, rippling through the water like dolphin sonar.**

**"Where are you?" I called aloud.**

**Then, through the gloom, I saw her—a woman the color of the water, a ghost in the current, floating just above the sword. She had long billowing hair, and her eyes, barely visible, were green like mine.**

**A lump formed in my throat. I said, "Mom?"**

Everyone winced at this

Silena sniffed "My heart is breaking at this."

_**No, child, only a messenger, though your mother's fate is not as hope less as you believe. Go to the beach in Santa Monica.**_

"Santa Monica, what's in Santa Monica?" Rachel asked

"Help." Annabeth answered

**"What?"**

_**It is your father's will. Before you descend into the Underworld, you must go to Santa Monica. Please, Percy, I cannot stay long. The river here is too foul for my presence.**_

"There's soggy burgers in there, don't blame her." Grover muttered

**"But ..." I was sure this woman was my mother, or a vision of her, anyway. "Who—how did you—"**

**There was so much I wanted to ask, the words jammed up in my throat.**

**_I __cannot __stay, __brave __one,_the woman said. She reached out, and I felt the current brush my face like a caress. _You __must __go __to __Santa __Monica!__And, __Percy, __do __not __trust __the __gifts..._**

"Gifts, as in plural, as in more than the magical flying shoes?" Thalia raised an eyebrow

"Yup." Percy frowned

**Her voice faded.**

**"Gifts?" I asked. "What gifts? Wait!"**

**She made one more attempt to speak, but the sound was gone. Her image melted away. If it was my mother, I had lost her again.**

**I felt like drowning myself. The only problem: I was immune to drowning.**

"Wow the joys of being a son of Poseidon, immune to killing yourself by drowning." Thalia snickered

**_Your __father __believes __in __you,_she had said.**

**She'd also called me brave ... unless she was talking to the catfish.**

"Yes because she was calling a 500 pound catfish brave, makes a lot of sense there Percy." Travis said

"500 pounds?" Percy asked confused

"You did say a catfish the size of your stepfather." Nico pointed out

"Oh well than in that case it was probably more than 500 pounds." Percy grinned, making fun of Gabe was fun he thought

**I waded toward Riptide and grabbed it by the hilt. The Chimera might still be up there with its snaky, fat mother, waiting to finish me off. At the very least, the mortal police would be arriving, trying to figure out who had blown a hole in the Arch. If they found me, they'd have some questions.**

**I capped my sword, stuck the ballpoint pen in my pocket. "Thank you, Father," I said again to the dark water.**

**Then I kicked up through the muck and swam for the surface.**

**I came ashore next to a floating McDonald's.**

"That's great, thanks for informing us about the greasy foods floating in water." Silena said grossed out

**A block away, every emergency vehicle in St. Louis was surrounding the Arch. Police helicopters circled overhead. The crowd of onlookers reminded me of Times Square on New Year's Eve.**

**A little girl said, "Mama! That boy walked out of the river."**

"Great job, genius, a little girl just saw through the mist." Thalia muttered

**"That's nice, dear," her mother said, craning her neck to watch the ambulances.**

**"But he's dry!"**

**"That's nice, dear."**

"You gotta love, how much adults listen to us." Chris joked weakly

"Good thing, parents don't listen to kids, other wise you would have been arrested." Clarisse announced

**A news lady was talking for the camera: "Probably not a terrorist attack, we're told, but it's still very early in the investigation. The damage, as you can see, is very serious. We're trying to get to some of the survivors, to question them about eyewitness reports of someone falling from the Arch."**

"Just what you need, I can see the headlines now Percy Jackson falls off Arch and talks to giant catfish!" Connor announced like a news reported

"Giant catfish?" Percy asked

"I felt like adding that in." Connor shrugged

**_Survivors._ I felt a surge of relief. Maybe the park ranger and that family made it out safely. I hoped Annabeth and Grover were okay.**

**I tried to push through the crowd to see what was going on inside the police line.**

**"... an adolescent boy," another reporter was saying. "Channel Five has learned that surveillance cameras show an adolescent boy going wild on the observation deck, somehow setting off this freak explosion. Hard to believe, John, but that's what we're hearing. Again, no confirmed fatalities …"**

"That's great you just destroyed a national monument." Thalia muttered

"I thought we were past that already." Percy grinned cheekily

**I backed away, trying to keep my head down. I had to go a long way around the police perimeter. Uniformed officers and news reporters were everywhere.**

**I'd almost lost hope**

"No!" Travis screamed loudly jumping into Percy's lap, never lose hope, for losing hope would mean-"

"Travis, what are you doing?" Percy asked bewildered

"I'm trying to give a motivational speech about hope like the movies." Travis grinned

**of ever finding Annabeth and Grover when a familiar voice bleated, "Perrr-cy!"**

**I turned and got tackled by Grover's bear hug—or goat hug. He said, "We thought you'd gone to Hades the hard way!"**

Nico smirked at this and opened his mouth to say something

"Don't even try." Annabeth shot him a pointed look

**Annabeth stood behind him, trying to look angry, but even she seemed relieved to see me.**

Silena squealed at this successfully breaking everyone's eardrums

**"We can't leave you alone for five minutes! What happened?"**

**"I sort of fell."**

Thalia scoffed "I sort of fell, great explanation."

**"Percy! Six hundred and thirty feet?"**

Thalia winced at this

**Behind us, a cop shouted, "Gangway!" The crowd parted, and a couple of paramedics hustled out, rolling a woman on a stretcher. I recognized her immediately as the mother of the little boy who'd been on the observation deck. She was saying, "And then this huge dog, this huge fire-breathing Chihuahua—"**

Everyone laughed at this

"You guys do realize that she said huge dog than Chihuahua right?" Rachel asked bewildered

"Yup, but she was confused and shocked." Annabeth declared

"Not to mention she was on medication." Percy muttered

**"Okay, ma'am," the paramedic said. "Just calm down. Your family is fine. The medication is starting to kick in."**

**"I'm not crazy! This boy jumped out of the hole and the monster disappeared." Then she saw me. "There he is! That's the boy!"**

"Oh gods, run." Nico groaned

"It's not like anyone was going to listen to her." Percy muttered

**I turned quickly and pulled Annabeth and Grover after me. We disappeared into the crowd.**

**"What's going on?" Annabeth demanded. "Was she talking about the Chihuahua on the elevator?"**

**I told them the whole story of the Chimera, Echidna, my high-dive act, and the underwater lady's message.**

"Stop wasting time get out of there before someone sees you!" Thalia urged

"Too late now…" Beckendorf pointed out

**"Whoa," said Grover. "We've got to get you to Santa Monica! You can't ignore a summons from your dad."**

**Before Annabeth could respond, we passed another reporter doing a news break, and I almost froze in my tracks when he said, "Percy Jackson. That's right, Dan. Channel Twelve has learned that the boy who may have caused this explosion fits the description of a young man wanted by authorities for a serious New Jersey bus accident three days ago. _And_the boy is believed to be traveling west. For our viewers at home, here is a photo of Percy Jackson."**

"Great just what you need, now you're a known fugitive." Rachel groaned

"That was the chapter title." Percy pointed out to her

**We ducked around the news van and slipped into an alley.**

**"First things first," I told Grover. "We've got to get out of town!"**

"Percy's being rational?" Several people said shocked

**Somehow, we made it back to the Amtrak station with out getting spotted. We got on board the train just before it pulled out for Denver. The train trundled west as darkness fell, police lights still pulsing against the St. Louis skyline behind us.**

"The end." Annabeth said

"It's getting late, why don't we get some sleep, and read more tomorrow?" Percy suggested

"Good idea." Nico muttered dashing out of the room

No one seemed to notice a strange glow beginning to form on the ceiling…

**Who is your favorite Percy Jackson character, minus Percy? **

**Answers will be told next update! I'm just curious…**

**Please review and vote on my profile which 6 characters I should add to my story. They will be added next chapter….dun, dun, dun, dun!**


	17. A God buys us Cheeseburgers

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson or any of it's characters, I wish I did but I don't…**

**Please review, constructive criticism s welcome, flames make me happy, and compliments make me fly! **

**Chapter Fifteen**

"**A God buys us Cheeseburgers"**

Rachel had been the first one up as usual, she was always the "early bird". So maybe that was why at exactly 6:17 in the morning a scream ran through the entire hall making everyone fall out of their beds. And maybe that was why at exactly 6:19 everyone jumped out of their beds believing that a monster had invaded. And at exactly 6:23 everyone gathered in the room where they read the book starring at the blue hole in the ceiling.

"What. The. Heck. Is. That?" Annabeth gasped horrified

"A wormhole that's going to swallow us and kill us all." Nico muttered

And at exactly 6:26 a yellow wrinkled paper fell out of the ceiling. Percy grabbed it out of the air before reading it "Be prepared for guest, more is to come."

"So the wormhole in the ceiling is going to bring us new friends?" Tyson asked exited

Before anyone could answer the first guest fell out of the sky.

"Mom?" Percy asked shocked

"Percy what's going on?" She asked looking around at all the shocked faces of half-bloods surrounding her

"I don't-"

"Mother Rhea always loved me best!" Zeus roared

Hades waved his hand dismiss fully "Just because she didn't allow you to be eaten doesn't mean she actually liked you!"

At this Zeus' face turned red "Brothers please, don't argue-who the Hades are you people?" Poseidon began only to finally notice the other people in the room "Sally." He breathed as he noticed a certain women standing in the room

"Poseidon." Sally blushed much to the amusement of Percy

"Woah that was fun!" Apollo screamed as he landed on one of the couches much to everyone's dismay

"Who are you?" Athena stated calmly looking at the teenagers

"I'm Hermes!" the messenger god said

"She didn't mean you, you idiot!" Artemis slapped him upside the head

Another note fell out of the "wormhole" before it closed up leaving not even a scar in the ceiling, this time Athena caught the note "I welcome the mighty gods, Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, the gorgeous, wonderful, and brilliant Apollo." Athena frowned as she read this before continuing

"I think I know who sent us here." Connor stated

"Athena, Artemis, and Hermes. And of course the lovely mortal Sally Jackson. I hope that by bringing you here we will be able to change a terrifying future that is to come.

The gods are closer.

To victory they shall lead.

Apollo is cool."

Apollo smirked at this while Artemis resisted the urge to murder him

"What do they mean by changing the future Perseus?" Zeus narrowed his eyes at the son of Poseidon who winced at his name, before explaining what was going on

"I see." Athena pondered "Well I guess we have to read the books in the evil spawns brain."

"Thank you, I'll try not to feel offended by that." Percy muttered, gods she was worst than Thalia and Annabeth combined

"But its 6 am in the morning do we really have to read a book!" Nico whined like a child

"Yes we do, haven't you heard of the expression a book each day will help you live longer!" Rachel chirped not at the least intimidated by the fact that there were some of the most powerful immortal beings in the world here

"And who are you?" Zeus narrowed his eyes at the mortal

"Rachel Elizabeth Dare, you know the mortal who navigated Percy through the labyrinth." Rachel smiled, much to Annabeth's displeasure

"Ah, yes." Apollo nodded having the look in his eyes as if he knew something no one else did

Annabeth clapped her hands together and fell onto one of the couches "Reading time!" she said not liking that everyone was focusing on Rachel and that Percy's eyes weren't even leaving her…not that that mattered.

"I'll read." Grover offered before shrinking at Zeus' glare. He grabbed the book and flipped open to the next chapter, before groaning "This one is long!" he whined

"Well too bad." Annabeth snapped

"Geez, calm down women, no need to bite me head off." Grover muttered

"**A****God****Buys****us****Cheeseburgers,"** Grover read

Percy, Annabeth, and Grover shivered at the memory

**The next afternoon, June 14, seven days before the solstice, our train rolled into Denver. We hadn't eaten since the night before in the dining car, somewhere in Kansas. We hadn't taken a shower since Half-Blood Hill, and I was sure that was obvious.**

"That's great, seriously you should really share that with everyone." Silena made a disgusted face

"It was obvious." Annabeth told Percy

"You shouldn't be talking." Percy teased before paling as he saw Athena's glare

**"Let's try to contact Chiron," Annabeth said. "I want to tell him about your talk with the river spirit."**

**"We can't use phones, right?"**

Everyone opened their mouths about to comment on that

"I didn't know, okay." Percy sighed

**"I'm not talking about phones."**

**We wandered through downtown for about half an hour, though I wasn't sure what Annabeth was looking for. The air was dry and hot, which felt weird after the humidity of St. Louis. Everywhere we turned, the Rocky Mountains seemed to be staring at me, like a tidal wave about to crash into the city.**

**Finally we found an empty do-it-yourself car wash. We veered toward the stall farthest from the street, keeping our eyes open for patrol cars. We were three adolescents hanging out at a car wash without a car; any cop worth his doughnuts would figure we were up to no good.**

A few people snickered at this

"And to make it even better your wanted picture is everywhere." Thalia rolled her eyes

**"What exactly are we doing?" I asked, as Grover took out the spray gun.**

**"It's seventy-five cents," he grumbled. "I've only got two quarters left. Annabeth?"**

**"Don't look at me," she said. "The dining car wiped me out."**

**I fished out my last bit of change and passed Grover a quarter, which left me two nickels and one drachma from Medusa's place.**

**"Excellent," Grover said. "We could do it with a spray bottle, of course, but the connection isn't as good, and my arm gets tired of pumping."**

"Maybe that wouldn't happen if you worked out, your arms are like noodles." Clarisse sneered

"I worked out, I lift…stuff." Grover broke off awkwardly

**"What are you talking about?"**

**He fed in the quarters and set the knob to FINE MIST. "I-M'ing."**

**"Instant messaging?"**

Everyone sighed simultaneously, there was no hope for this poor boy, he already had Poseidon's fish brain

**"_Iris_-messaging," Annabeth corrected. "The rainbow goddess Iris carries messages for the gods. If you know how to ask, and she's not too busy, she'll do the same for half-bloods."**

"She rarely rejects demigods, the one time she did poor Leroy ended up dying." Athena shook her head

Leroy, Percy wondered, why did that name sound so familiar?

**"You summon the goddess with a spray gun?"**

**Grover pointed the nozzle in the air and water hissed out in a thick white mist. "Unless you know an easier way to make a rainbow."**

"Percy can make a rainbow." Poseidon stated

"He can? And you didn't tell us?" Annabeth turned to glared at Percy

"Well I didn't know!" Percy said defensively

Nico sighed "You wasted a good 75 cents, do you know what you could get with that much money?" he said no sense of humor in his voice

"Nothing?" Chris told him

**Sure enough, late afternoon light filtered through the vapor and broke into colors.**

**Annabeth held her palm out to me. "Drachma, please."**

**I handed it over.**

**She raised the coin over her head. "O goddess, accept our offering."**

**She threw the drachma into the rainbow. It disappeared in a golden shimmer.**

**"Half-Blood Hill," Annabeth requested.**

**For a moment, nothing happened.**

**Then I was looking through the mist at strawberry fields, and the Long Island Sound in the distance. We seemed to be on the porch of the Big House. Standing with his back to us at the railing was a sandy-haired guy in shorts and an orange tank top. He was holding a bronze sword and seemed to be staring intently at something down in the meadow.**

**"Luke!" I called.**

Hermes whimpered as he heard of his son, remembering what happened to him, and everyone else scowled at the mention of the traitor.

**He turned, eyes wide. I could swear he was standing three feet in front of me through a screen of mist, except I could only see the part of him that appeared in the rainbow.**

**"Percy!" His scarred face broke into a grin. "Is that Annabeth, too? Thank the gods! Are you guys okay?"**

**"We're ... uh ... fine," Annabeth stammered. She was madly straightening her dirty T-shirt, trying to comb the loose hair out of her face.**

Everyone chocked back a laugh at this except for Hermes, who was still grieving over his son, Athena, and Annabeth who was currently mentally ripping Percy's head off than gluing it on just to rip it off again

**"We thought—Chiron—I mean—"**

**"He's****down****at****the****cabins."****Luke's****smile****faded.****"We're****having****some****issues****with****the****campers.** **Listen,****is****everything****cool****with****you?****Is****Grover****all****right?"**

Grover frowned at this before continuing, like the jerk actually cared

**"I'm right here," Grover called. He held the nozzle out to one side and stepped into Luke's line of vision. "What kind of issues?"**

**Just then a big Lincoln Continental pulled into the car wash with its stereo turned to maximum hip-hop. As the car slid into the next stall, the bass from the subwoofers vibrated so much, it shook the pavement.**

**"Chiron had to—what's that noise?" Luke yelled.**

**"I'll take care of it.'" Annabeth yelled back, looking very relieved to have an excuse to get out of sight.**

This time people couldn't hold back the laugh that formed, and soon everyone was laughing while Annabeth glared at them trying to get them to stop

**"Grover, come on!"**

**"What?" Grover said. "But—"**

**"Give Percy the nozzle and come on!" she ordered.**

**Grover muttered something about girls being harder to understand than the Oracle at Delphi, then he handed me the spray gun and followed Annabeth.**

Grover's voice shook as her read this, and soon he was bombed with angry females yelling at him, about how the male species what idiotic and something more that will not be mentioned.

**I readjusted the hose so I could keep the rainbow going and still see Luke.**

"You should have used the hose to shower instead of talking to him!" Travis spat

"Now that I think about it that would have been a good idea." Percy muttered

"Come one Percy, be a man, we men don't need to shower, we can smell like musk!" Apollo slapped Percy in the back causing him to fall forward

"Really than why is it that you shower in the morning and at night? And you wear Abercrombie perfume?" Artemis narrowed her eyes at Apollo who coughed while everyone else laughed

"It's cologne." He huffed

**"Chiron had to break up a fight," Luke shouted to me over the music. "Things are pretty tense here, Percy. Word leaked out about the Zeus—Poseidon standoff. We're still not sure how—probably the same scumbag who summoned the hellhound.**

Connor grinned widely at this "I love how he just called himself a scumbag."

Hermes whimpered at this, and Apollo awkwardly patted him on the back

**Now the campers are starting to take sides. It's shaping up like the Trojan War all over again. Aphrodite, Ares, and Apollo are backing Poseidon, more or less. Athena is backing Zeus."**

"Of course you are." Poseidon muttered

"what's that suppose to mean fish for brains?" Athena snarled

"Gods, they're worst than Percy and Annabeth, although the insults need a little work though, I like Percy's, very creative." Thalia whispered to Nico as everyone watched in wonder as Poseidon and Athena fought

"Doesn't it ever get old for them, arguing for over nearly 2 thousand years?" Hades sighed

"Doesn't it ever get old for the big three to argue all those millennia?" Beckendorf asked only to wish he hadn't comment as three of the most powerful gods looked at him

**I shuddered to think that Clarisse's cabin would ever be on my dad's side for anything.**

"Because Ares know that by being on my side will only make Zeus madder, causing an even bigger fight." Poseidon muttered

**In the next stall, I heard Annabeth and some guy arguing with each other, then the music's volume decreased drastically.**

"What did you do?" Nico asked bewildered

"It's my secret that I shall never tell." Annabeth smirked

"She scared him!" Grover whispered as Annabeth glared

**"So what's your status?" Luke asked me. "Chiron will be sorry he missed you."**

**I told him pretty much everything, including my dreams. It felt so good to see him, to feel like I was back at camp even for a few minutes, that I didn't realize how long I had talked until the beeper went off on the spray machine, and I realized I only had one more minute before the water shut off.**

**"I wish I could be there," Luke told me. "We can't help much from here, I'm afraid, but listen ... it had to be Hades who took the master bolt. He was there at Olympus at the winter solstice. I was chaperoning a field trip and we saw him."**

"Sure blame me, just because I sit in the underworld all day watching the dead does not mean I don't have feelings." Hades huffed while everyone stared at him

"Told you, he had feelings." Nico said glad to be right for once

**"But Chiron said the gods can't take each other's magic items directly."**

**"That's true," Luke said, looking troubled. "Still ... Hades has the helm of darkness. How could anybody else sneak into the throne room and steal the master bolt? You'd have to be invisible."**

Annabeth frowned, was he seriously blaming her?

**We were both silent, until Luke seemed to realize what he'd said.**

**"Oh, hey," he protested. "I didn't mean Annabeth. She and I have known each other forever. She would never ... I mean, she's like a little sister to me."**

**I wondered if Annabeth would like that description.**

"I love it." Annabeth whispered her eyes watery, Luke **was** like a brother to her why should it bother her…

**In the stall next to us, the music stopped completely. A man screamed in terror, car doors slammed, and the Lincoln peeled out of the car wash.**

Everyone's eyes widened at this before glancing at Annabeth who glared at them, for some reason they had a feeling she was more than capable of doing that.

**"You'd better go see what that was," Luke said. "Listen, are you wearing the flying shoes? I'll feel better if I know they've done you some good."**

**"Oh ... uh, yeah!" I tried not to sound like a guilty liar. "Yeah, they've come in handy."**

**"Really?" He grinned. "They fit and everything?"**

**The water shut off. The mist started to evaporate.**

**"Well, take care of yourself out there in Denver," Luke called, his voice getting fainter. "And tell Grover it'll be better this time! Nobody will get turned into a pine tree if he just—"**

Grover and Thalia both frowned at this

"Not your fault, Goat boy." She smiled as Grover started to apologize

"It is too his fault!" Zeus argued

**But the mist was gone, and Luke's image faded to nothing. I was alone in a wet, empty car wash stall.**

"Gods why can't you think happier thoughts, stuff like that's going to make you depressed." Apollo frowned

"Not everyone is bubbly and happy like you are." Artemis sighed

**Annabeth and Grover came around the corner, laughing, but stopped when they saw my face. Annabeth's smile faded. "What happened, Percy? What did Luke say?"**

**"Not much," I lied, my stomach feeling as empty as a Big Three cabin.**

**"Come on, let's find some dinner."**

"You guys didn't even have 75 cents how are you going to get dinner?" Rachel asked

"Duh, the chapter title a god buys them cheeseburgers!" Nico rolled his eyes

**A few minutes later, we were sitting at a booth in a gleaming chrome diner.**

**All around us, families were eating burgers and drinking malts and sodas.**

**Finally the waitress came over. She raised her eyebrow skeptically. "Well?"**

**I said, "We, um, want to order dinner."**

**"You kids have money to pay for it?"**

**Grover's lower lip quivered. I was afraid he would start bleating, or worse, start eating the linoleum.**

**Annabeth looked ready to pass out from hunger.**

**I was trying to think up a sob story for the waitress**

"I doubt she would buy it if the first thing she asks you is do you have money." Chris said

**when a rumble shook the whole building; a motorcycle the size of a baby elephant had pulled up to the curb.**

"Ares." All the gods said at the same time nodding at each other

**All conversation in the diner stopped. The motorcycle's headlight glared red. Its gas tank had flames painted on it, and a shotgun holster riveted to either side, complete with shotguns. The seat was leather—but leather that looked like ... well, Caucasian human skin.**

**The guy on the bike would've made pro wrestlers run for Mama. He was dressed in a red muscle shirt and black jeans and a black leather duster, with a hunting knife strapped to his thigh. He wore red wraparound shades, and he had the cruelest, most brutal face I'd ever seen— handsome, I guess, but wicked—with an oily black crew cut and cheeks that were scarred from many, many fights. The weird thing was, I felt like I'd seen his face somewhere before.**

"Clarisse." Percy muttered as he glanced at her

**As he walked into the diner, a hot, dry wind blew through the place. All the people rose, as if they were hypnotized, but the biker waved his hand dismissively and they all sat down again. Everybody went back to their conversations. The waitress blinked, as if somebody had just pressed the rewind button on her brain. She asked us again, "You kids have money to pay for it?"**

**The biker said, "It's on me." He slid into our booth, which was way too small for him, and crowded Annabeth against the window.**

Connor and Travis coughed to hide their laughter

While Athena glared at the book, her poor daughter squished by the lug

**He looked up at the waitress, who was gaping at him, and said, "Are you still here?"**

**He pointed at her, and she stiffened. She turned as if she'd been spun around, then marched back toward the kitchen.**

"What was that?" Rachel asked

"Scaring a mortal is too easy." Hades rolled his eyes

**The biker looked at me. I couldn't see his eyes behind the red shades, but bad feelings started boiling in my stomach. Anger, resentment, bitterness. I wanted to hit a wall. I wanted to pick a fight with somebody. Who did this guy think he was?**

**He gave me a wicked grin. "So you're old Seaweed's kid, huh?"**

Poseidon looked as if he could breathe fire at this "Please tell me he did not just call me old Seaweed."

"But he did." Hades and Zeus grinned wickedly at Poseidon

"And I'm okay with that." Poseidon said much to the dismay of his brothers who were hoping to see some action

**I should've been surprised, or scared, but instead I felt like I was looking at my stepdad, Gabe. I wanted to rip this guy's head off. "What's it to you?"**

"You really do have a talent for getting gods to murder you don't you?" Artemis chuckled

**Annabeth's eyes flashed me a warning. "Percy, this is—"**

**The biker raised his hand.**

**"S'okay," he said. "I don't mind a little attitude. Long as you remember who's the boss. You know who I am, little cousin?"**

**Then it struck me why this guy looked familiar. He had the same vicious sneer as some of the kids at Camp Half-Blood, the ones from cabin five.**

**"You're Clarisse's dad," I said.**

"That's not how you want to introduce a god, the father of some demigod." Hermes shook his head

**"Ares, god of war." **

**Ares grinned and took off his shades. Where his eyes should've been, there was only fire, empty sockets glowing with miniature nuclear explosions. "That's right, punk. I heard you broke Clarisse's spear."**

Clarisse glared at Percy who smirked "On more than one occasion."

**"She was asking for it."**

**"Probably. That's cool. I don't fight my kids' fights, you know? What I'm here for—I heard you were in town. I got a little proposition for you."**

"Dealing with gods, never a good idea." Hermes shook his head

"But you're a god." Rachel pointed out

"Exactly, that's why I should know." Hermes nodded

**The waitress came back with heaping trays of food—cheeseburgers, fries, onion rings, and chocolate shakes.**

At this point most of the boys were literally drooling.

"Food…" Apollo moaned sounding like a zombie

**Ares handed her a few gold drachmas.**

**She looked nervously at the coins. "But, these aren't..."**

**Ares pulled out his huge knife and started cleaning his fingernails. "Problem, sweetheart?"**

"It is real gold, I don't see the problem, and she could probably sell them for a lot more than what the burgers are worth." Chris pointed out

**The waitress swallowed, then left with the gold.**

"Ares can't do that," Athena shrieked "You can't just threaten people with a knife!"

**"You can't do that," I told Ares. "You can't just threaten people with a knife."**

Apollo and Hermes both laughed as Athena paled "No, no, no, I am not thinking like that-that spawn!"

"Looks like you and I have a lot more in common than you think." Percy smirked before shrinking when Athena glared

**Ares laughed. "Are you kidding? I love this country. Best place since Sparta. Don't you carry a weapon, punk? You should. Dangerous world out there. Which brings me to my proposition. I need you to do me a favor."**

**"What favor could I do for a god?"**

"A lot actually, gods need half-bloods for lot of stuff." Apollo pointed out while Zeus huffed

**"Something a god doesn't have time to do himself. It's nothing much. I left my shield at an abandoned water park here in town. I was going on a little ... date with my girl friend. We were interrupted. I left my shield behind. I want you to fetch it for me."**

**"Why don't you go back and get it yourself?"**

**The fire in his eye sockets glowed a little hotter.**

**"Why don't I turn you into a prairie dog and run you over with my Harley? Because I don't feel like it.**

"And because I would strangle Ares with water if he tried anything." Poseidon pointed out

Rachel sighed "Must be nice to have parents who could beat up anyone who mess with you."

**A god is giving you an opportunity to prove yourself, Percy Jackson. Will you prove yourself a coward?" He leaned forward. "Or maybe you only fight when there's a river to dive into, so your daddy can protect you."**

**I wanted to punch this guy, but somehow, I knew he was waiting for that. Ares's power was causing my anger. He'd love it if I attacked. I didn't want to give him the satisfaction.**

**"We're not interested," I said. "We've already got a quest."**

**Ares's fiery eyes made me see things I didn't want to see—blood and smoke and corpses on the battlefield. "I know all about your quest, punk. When that _item_was first stolen, Zeus sent his best out looking for it: Apollo, Athena, Artemis, and me, naturally. If I couldn't sniff out a weapon that powerful ..." He licked his lips, as if the very thought of the master bolt made him hungry. "Well ... if I couldn't find it, you got no hope. Nevertheless, I'm trying to give you the benefit of the doubt. Your dad and I go way back. After all, I'm the one who told him my suspicions about old Corpse Breath."**

"Ares." Hades growled, of course he blamed me

"Should have known it was Ares, stealing my little baby, the power hungry fool, must punish him even more once we get back." Zeus muttered to himself

"Can someone say paranoid?" Nico muttered

**"You told him Hades stole the bolt?"**

**"Sure. ****Framing ****somebody ****to ****start ****a ****war. ****Oldest ****trick ****in ****the ****book. ****I ****recognized ****it ****immediately.** **In ****a****way, ****you ****got ****me ****to ****thank ****for ****your ****little ****quest."**

Hades fist clenched and for a second everyone froze imagining the ground opening up and swallowing all of them up, luckily that didn't happen.

**"Thanks," I grumbled.**

**"Hey, I'm a generous guy. Just do my little job, and I'll help you on your way. I'll arrange a ride west for you and your friends."**

"That seemed highly suspicious, _Ares_ of all people was trying to help you prevent a war." Apollo raised his eyebrows at Annabeth

"I've never met face to face with a god before I was nervous." Annabeth blushed

**"We're doing fine on our own."**

**"Yeah, right. No money. No wheels. No clue what you're up against. Help me out, and maybe I'll tell you something you need to know. Something about your mom."**

**"My mom?"**

"Oh Percy." Sally sighed holding her son close to her causing him to blush

"I'm fine mom, everything's okay, you can let go now-I'm losing air." Percy gasped patting his mom on the back reassuringly

"Mama's boy." Hermes, Travis and Connor coughed only to be received with glares of woman who thought that Percy was adorable

**He grinned. "That got your attention. The water park is a mile west on Delancy. You can't miss it. Look for the Tunnel of Love ride."**

Several people snickered at this "Tunnel of Love?" Hermes questioned raising an eyebrow "You two?"

"I was there too!" Grover said only to be ignored

"You were in the Tunnel of Love with that sea spawn?" Athena hissed at Annabeth who sank lower and lower into her chair wishing that she could disappear

"I'll have you know my son is-" Poseidon began only to be cut off by Grover's panicked reading

**"What interrupted your date?" I asked. "Something scare you off?"**

**Ares bared his teeth, but I'd seen his threatening look before on Clarisse. There was something false about it, almost like he was nervous.**

Several of the gods coughed to hide their laughs.

**"You're lucky you met me, punk, and not one of the other Olympians. They're not as forgiving of rudeness as I am.**

"Actually they're not if you spoke to them the way you spoke to Ares you would have been turned into a rat or something by now." Apollo pointed out

"So you're telling me that _Ares_ is the nicest of the gods?" Percy asked incredulous

"My idiot of a brother said it wrong, Ares was nicer because he needed you for something and because he felt guilty, otherwise you would already be a pile of seawater." Artemis commented waving her hand impatiently resembling a 12 year old diva

**I'll meet you back here when you're done. Don't disappoint me."**

**After that I must have fainted, or fallen into a trance, because when I opened my eyes again, Ares was gone. I might've thought the conversation had been a dream, but Annabeth and Grover's expressions told me otherwise.**

**"Not good," Grover said. "Ares sought you out, Percy. This is not good."**

**I stared out the window. The motorcycle had disappeared.**

**Did Ares really know something about my mom, or was he just playing with me? Now that he was gone, all the anger had drained out of me. I realized Ares must love to mess with people's emotions. That was his power—cranking up the passions so badly, they clouded your ability to think.**

**"It's probably some kind of trick," I said. "Forget Ares. Let's just go."**

"I wish you could do that, but ignoring the gods is bad." Poseidon told his son who laughed remembering what Annabeth had said next

**"We can't," Annabeth said. "Look, I hate Ares as much as anybody, but you don't ignore the gods unless you want serious bad fortune. He wasn't kidding about turning you into a rodent."**

"No." Athena gasped horrified

Poseidon laughed at this "Looks like you and me have a lot more in common." He chuckled

At this Athena let out a scream that was probably heard in Antarctica

**I looked down at my cheeseburger, which suddenly didn't seem so appetizing. **

Several _male_ half-bloods fell out of their chairs

"When food doesn't look appetizing you know you're not a guy." Chris pointed out

Hermes and Apollo nodded in agreement

"Boys, all they do is think with their stomachs." Artemis rolled her eyes

"No occasionally we think with our di-"

"Don't you dare finish that sentence Apollo." Artemis hissed

**"Why does he need us?"**

**"Maybe it's a problem that requires brains," Annabeth said. "Ares has strength. That's all he has. Even strength has to bow to wisdom sometimes."**

Athena nodded proudly at her daughter at this who grinned with triumph.

**"But this water park ... he acted almost scared. What would make a war god run away like that?"**

"The jealous husband of his girlfriend." Percy muttered to Grover and Annabeth who snickered

**Annabeth and Grover glanced nervously at each other.**

**Annabeth said, "I'm afraid we'll have to find out."**

"Ominous." Nico stated

**The sun was sinking behind the mountains by the time we found the water park. Judging from the sign, it once had been called WATERLAND, but now some of the letters were smashed out, so it read WAT R A D.**

"Wat Rad." Apollo said to himself chuckling before cracking up hysterically

"Excuse him." Artemis said "He was dropped on the head as a baby."

"Explains so much." Hermes nodded as if all the answers in the world had just been answered

**The main gate was padlocked and topped with barbed wire. Inside, huge dry waterslides and tubes and pipes curled everywhere, leading to empty pools. Old tickets and advertisements fluttered around the asphalt. With night coming on, the place looked sad and creepy.**

**"If Ares brings his girlfriend here for a date," I said, staring up at the barbed wire, "I'd hate to see what she looks like."**

All the gods froze horrified as if they could literally hear Aphrodite screaming and blowing a casket because of this.

"Images, mental images, Aphrodite murdering everyone." Hermes muttered

**"Percy," Annabeth warned. "Be more respectful."**

**"Why? I thought you hated Ares."**

**"He's still a god. And his girlfriend is very temperamental."**

"Temperamental?" Hades muttered "She threw her 300 pound purse at me for telling her that Romeo and Juliet was a stupid couple."

**"You don't want to insult her looks," Grover added.**

**"Who is she? Echidna?"**

Everyone in the room chocked not believing that he just said that.

**"No, Aphrodite," Grover said, a little dreamily. "Goddess of love."**

**"I thought she was married to somebody," I said. "Hephaestus."**

"You're point?" Zeus asked Percy raising an eyebrow

**"What's your point?" he asked.**

Zeus looked like someone had just announced his precious lightning bolt had been stolen again "No I am nothing like that satyr, nothing." He whimpered

Thalia looked at the gods and the half-bloods helplessly before awkwardly patting her dad on the back "Its okay, its okay." She soothed

**"Oh." I suddenly felt the need to change the subject. "So how do we get in?"**

**_"Maia!"_Grover's shoes sprouted wings.**

"Maia!" Hermes hissed at his shoes praying to himself that this would be the only time they said Maia in the books

**He flew over the fence, did an unintended somersault in midair, then stumbled to a landing on the opposite side. He dusted off his jeans, as if he'd planned the whole thing. "You guys coming?"**

**Annabeth and I had to climb the old-fashioned way, holding down the barbed wire for each other as we crawled over the top.**

**The shadows grew long as we walked through the park, checking out the attractions. There was Ankle Biter Island, Head Over Wedgie, and Dude, Where's My Swimsuit?**

"I wonder what goes on in that ride." Connor wiggled his eyebrows suggestively

**No monsters came to get us. Nothing made the slightest noise.**

**We found a souvenir shop that had been left open. Merchandise still lined the shelves: snow globes, pencils, postcards, and racks of—**

**"Clothes," Annabeth said. "Fresh clothes."**

**"Yeah," I said. "But you can't just—"**

**"Watch me."**

**Several people gasped at this**

"A daughter of Athena stealing, unheard of!" Hermes gasped

Athena's jaw tightened "Well maybe that's because she's been around your traitor of a son for too long." As soon as the words came out Athena regretted it realizing what she had said

Hermes looked crest fallen at this

"Oh Hermes I didn't mean it that way I swear." Athena said

"Yeah she didn't mean it that way, it was just old owl face being a know it all." Apollo attempted to cheer his friend up

"Don't." Hermes raised a hand stopping all the gods from speaking "Just…don't." he muttered heartbroken

**She snatched an entire row of stuff of the racks and disappeared into the changing room. A few minutes later she came out in Waterland flower-print shorts, a big red Waterland T-shirt, and commemorative Waterland surf shoes. A Waterland backpack was slung over her shoulder, obviously stuffed with more goodies.**

**"What the heck." Grover shrugged. Soon, all three of us were decked out like walking advertisements for the defunct theme park.**

**We continued searching for the Tunnel of Love.**

Silena pursed her lips at this wanting to say something at this but she was too nervous with the gods in the room, they must know she was working with Kronos, that she was the traitor. At this she started hyperventilating causing a few people to look at her.

**I got the feeling that the whole park was holding its breath. "So Ares and Aphrodite," I said, to keep my mind off the growing dark, "they have a thing going?"**

Several people laughed at that "If you're going to gossip you should at least do some new gossip like I got a new suit." Zeus barked touching the suit he was wearing now tenderly

**"That's old gossip, Percy," Annabeth told me. "Three-thousand-year-old gossip."**

**"What about Aphrodite's husband?"**

**"Well, you know," she said. "Hephaestus. The black smith. He was crippled when he was a baby, thrown off Mount Olympus by Zeus.**

"It was Hera. He-ra!" Zeus whined like a toddler

**So he isn't exactly handsome. Clever with his hands, and all, but Aphrodite isn't into brains and talent, you know?"**

**"She likes bikers."**

**"Whatever."**

**"Hephaestus knows?"**

**"Oh sure," Annabeth said. "He caught them together once. I mean, literally caught them, in a golden net, and invited all the gods to come and laugh at them. **

"That was a good year, I caught tons of giant sea monsters that year." Poseidon mused

**Hephaestus is always trying to embarrass them. That's why they meet in out-of-the-way places, like ..."**

**She stopped, looking straight ahead. "Like that."**

**In front of us was an empty pool that would've been awesome for skateboarding. It was at least fifty yards across and shaped like a bowl.**

**Around the rim, a dozen bronze statues of Cupid stood guard with wings spread and bows ready to fire. On the opposite side from us, a tunnel opened up, probably where the water flowed into when the pool was full. The sign above it read, THRILL RIDE O' LOVE: THIS IS NOT YOUR PARENTS' TUNNEL OF LOVE!**

**Grover crept toward the edge. "Guys, look."**

**Marooned at the bottom of the pool was a pink-and-white two-seater boat with a canopy over the top and little hearts painted all over it. In the left seat, glinting in the fading light, was Ares's shield, a polished circle of bronze.**

**"This is too easy," I said.**

Several people groaned "You never say it's too easy, that's how some of the most famous half-bloods end up in a trap!" Poseidon groaned

**"So we just walk down there and get it?"**

**Annabeth ran her fingers along the base of the nearest Cupid statue.**

**"There's a Greek letter carved here," she said. "Eta. I wonder ..."**

All the gods smiled knowingly at this

**"Grover," I said, "you smell any monsters?"**

**He sniffed the wind. "Nothing."**

"It's not monsters you have to worry about here, son." Poseidon warned the book

**"Nothing—like, in-the-Arch-and-you-didn't-smell-Echidna nothing, or really nothing?"**

"Ouch…that was just low." Travis shook his head

**Grover looked hurt. "I told you, that was underground."**

**"Okay, I'm sorry." I took a deep breath. "I'm going down there."**

**"I'll go with you." Grover**

"Have fun." Clarisse snorted

**didn't ****sound ****too ****enthusiastic, ****but ****I ****got ****the ****feeling ****he ****was ****trying ****to ****make****up ****for ****what ****had ****happened ****in ****St. ****Louis.**

**"No," I told him. "I want you to stay up top with the flying shoes. You're the Red Baron, a flying ace, remember? I'll be counting on you for backup, in case something goes wrong."**

"That has to do wonders for his ego." Rachel commented while Grover blushed

**Grover puffed up his chest a little. "Sure. But what could go wrong?"**

"And something goes wrong, seriously part of the orientation film should be about words not to use while on a quest!" Apollo said outraged

"Mmn, good idea, I'll write that down for when we get back." Hermes nodded

**"I don't know. Just a feeling. Annabeth, come with me—"**

"Of course he asks for Annabeth." Thalia teased

Athena turned red with anger at this "My daughter will-" Grover quickly cut her off continuing to read the book

**"Are you kidding?" She looked at me as if I'd just dropped from the moon. Her cheeks were bright red.**

**"What's the problem now?" I demanded.**

**"Me, go with you to the ... the 'Thrill Ride of Love'? How embarrassing is that? What if somebody saw me?"**

Athena nodded proudly at her daughter while everyone else rolled their eyes

**"Who's going to see you?" But my face was burning now, too. Leave it to a girl to make everything complicated.**

Artemis pursed her lips and her nostrils flared "Boys, disrespectful." She muttered crossing her arms

**"Fine," I told her. "I'll do it myself." But when I started down the side of the pool, she followed me, muttering about how boys always messed things up.**

**We reached the boat. The shield was propped on one seat, and next to it was a lady's silk scarf. I tried to imagine Ares and Aphrodite here, a couple of gods meeting in a junked-out amusement-park ride. Why? Then I noticed something I hadn't seen from up top: mirrors all the way around the rim of the pool, facing this spot. We could see ourselves no matter which direction we looked. That must be it. While Ares and Aphrodite were smooching with each other they could look at their favorite people: themselves.**

All the gods looked at each other before bursting out with laughter

**I picked up the scarf. It shimmered pink, and the perfume was indescribable—rose, or mountain laurel. Something good. **

Some of the other boys in the room smiled as if they were a trance, just hearing it about it was addicting.

**I smiled, a little dreamy, and was about to rub the scarf against my cheek when Annabeth ripped it out of my hand and stuffed it in her pocket. "Oh, no you don't. Stay away from that love magic."**

**"What?"**

**"Just get the shield, Seaweed Brain, and let's get out of here."**

**The moment I touched the shield, I knew we were in trouble. My hand broke through something that had been connecting it to the dashboard. A cobweb,**

Athena and Annabeth shivered at this

**I thought, but then I looked at a strand of it on my palm and saw it was some kind of metal filament, so fine it was almost invisible. A trip wire.**

Beckendorf frowned if this was one of his father's traps than it would be a miracle if they escaped with all their limbs still attached.

**"Wait," Annabeth said.**

**"Too late."**

**"There's another Greek letter on the side of the boat, another Eta. This is a trap."**

"If it's a trap Hephaestus should really stop leaving symbols to let people know that it's a trap." Hermes pointed out

**Noise erupted all around us, of a million gears grinding, as if the whole pool were turning into one giant machine.**

**Grover yelled, "Guys!"**

**Up on the rim, the Cupid statues were drawing their bows into firing position. Before I could suggest taking cover, they shot, but not at us. They fired at each other, across the rim of the pool. Silky cables trailed from the arrows, arcing over the pool and anchoring where they landed to form a huge golden asterisk. Then smaller metallic threads started weaving together magically between the main strands, making a net.**

**"We have to get out," I said.**

**"Duh!" Annabeth said.**

**I grabbed the shield and we ran, but going up the slope of the pool was not as easy as going down.**

"No, really?" Athena rolled her eyes

**"Come on!" Grover shouted.**

**He was trying to hold open a section of the net for us, but wherever he touched it, the golden threads started to wrap around his hands.**

"Interesting." Beckendorf mused

**The Cupids' heads popped open. Out came video cam eras. Spotlights rose up all around the pool, blinding us with illumination, and a loudspeaker voice boomed: "Live to Olympus in one minute ... Fifty-nine seconds, fifty-eight ..."**

**"Hephaestus!" Annabeth screamed. "I'm so stupid."**

"Did my ears hear me wrong? Did Annabeth Chase just admit she's stupid?" Connor said mocking Annabeth

Athena narrowed her eyes at Connor "Are you calling my daughter dumb?"

"No man-no, I was just-no!" Connor whimpered helplessly

**Eta is H.' He made this trap to catch his wife with Ares. Now we're going to be broadcast live to Olympus and look like absolute fools!"**

"Prissy doesn't need Hephaestus to look stupid." Clarisse rolled her eyes only to shrink a little as Poseidon glared at her

**We'd almost made it to the rim when the row of mirrors opened like hatches and thousands of tiny metallic ... things poured out.**

**Annabeth screamed.**

Nearly all the half-bloods raised their eyebrows at this, Annabeth did not scream

**It was an army of wind-up creepy-crawlies: bronze-gear bodies, spindly legs, little pincer mouths, all scuttling toward us in a wave of clacking, whirring metal.**

**"Spiders!" Annabeth said. "Sp—sp—aaaah!"**

The Stoll snickered "Spiders you're afraid of spiders?"

"The itsy bitsy spider climbed up the waterspout." Nico sung innocently before wincing as Athena and Annabeth's sharp glare cut into him

"Being afraid of spiders isn't the worst fear to have." Percy said glancing at Thalia unconsciously

**I'd never seen her like this before. She fell backward in terror and almost got overwhelmed by the spider robots before I pulled her up and dragged her back toward the boat.**

**The things were coming out from all around the rim now, millions of them, flooding toward the center of the pool, completely surrounding us. I told myself they probably weren't programmed to kill, just corral us and bite us and make us look stupid. Then again, this was a trap meant for gods. And we weren't gods.**

**Annabeth and I climbed into the boat.**

**I started kicking away the spiders as they swarmed aboard. I yelled at Annabeth to help me, but she was too paralyzed to do much more than scream.**

"Aren't you useful." Percy grumbled to Annabeth

"Shut up Seaweed Brain." She pushed him gently both of them knowing that she was more than useful

Athena and Poseidon watched the whole scene unfold like overprotected parents

**"Thirty, twenty-nine," called the loudspeaker.**

**The spiders started spitting out strands of metal thread, trying to tie us down. The strands were easy enough to break at first, but there were so many of them, and the spiders just kept coming. I kicked one away from Annabeth's leg and its pincers took a chunk out of my new surf shoe.**

**Grover hovered above the pool in his flying sneakers, trying to pull the net loose, but it wouldn't budge.**

**Think, I told myself. Think.**

"Not too hard, you might break something." Thalia teased

"Ha, ha so funny." Percy said blandly

**The Tunnel of Love entrance was under the net. We could use it as an exit, except that it was blocked by a million robot spiders.**

**"Fifteen, fourteen," the loudspeaker called.**

**Water, I thought. Where does the ride's water come from?**

**Then I saw them: huge water pipes behind the mirrors, where the spiders had come from. And up above the net, next to one of the Cupids, a glass-windowed booth that must be the controller's station.**

**"Grover!" I yelled. "Get into that booth! Find the 'on' switch!"**

**"But—"**

**"Do it!" It was a crazy hope, but it was our only chance. The spiders were all over the prow of the boat now. Annabeth was screaming her head off. I had to get us out of there.**

**Grover was in the controller's booth now, slamming away at the buttons.**

**"Five, four—"**

**Grover looked up at me hopelessly, raising his hands. He was letting me know that he'd pushed every button, but still nothing was happening.**

**I closed my eyes and thought about waves, rushing water, the Mississippi River. I felt a familiar tug in my gut. I tried to imagine that I was dragging the ocean all the way to Denver.**

"Smart." Poseidon nodded proudly at his son

"Smart." Nico snickered "Never thought anyone would use that word to describe Percy."

"You too?" Percy groaned

Athena smirked at this and looked at Annabeth as if to say see.

**"Two, one, _zero_!"**

**Water exploded out of the pipes. It roared into the pool, sweeping away the spiders. I pulled Annabeth into the seat next to me and fastened her seat belt just as the tidal wave slammed into our boat, over the top, whisking the spiders away and dousing us completely, but not capsizing us. The boat turned, lifted in the flood, and spun in circles around the whirlpool.**

"And you're live on Olympus!" Thalia cheered doing a fist pump

"I thought for sure you would vomit when I saw this." Apollo chuckled

**The water was full of short-circuiting spiders, some of them smashing against the pool's concrete wall with such force they burst.**

Athena grinned at this straightening up

"Spiders no more." Tyson sighed

**Spotlights glared down at us. The Cupid-cams were rolling, live to Olympus.**

**But I could only concentrate on controlling the boat. I willed it to ride the current, to keep away from the wall. Maybe it was my imagination, but the boat seemed to respond. At least, it didn't break into a million pieces. We spun around one last time, the water level now almost high enough to shred us against the metal net. Then the boat's nose turned toward the tunnel and we rocketed through into the darkness.**

**Annabeth and I held tight,**

"The two lovers clung to each other as the end came, holding onto each other so tight-"

Athena glared at Connor "You're really starting to get on my nerves."

"Sorry." He squeaked

**both of us screaming as the boat shot curls and hugged corners and took forty-five-degree plunges past pictures of Romeo and Juliet and a bunch of other Valentine's Day stuff.**

**Then we were out of the tunnel, the night air whistling through our hair as the boat barreled straight toward the exit.**

**If the ride had been in working order, we would've sailed off a ramp between the golden Gates of Love and splashed down safely in the exit pool. But there was a problem. The Gates of Love were chained. Two boats that had been washed out of the tunnel before us were now piled against the barricade—one submerged, the other cracked in half.**

**"Unfasten your seat belt," I yelled to Annabeth.**

**"Are you crazy?"**

"Just a bit." Percy smiled at Annabeth who blushed

**"Unless you want to get smashed to death." I strapped Ares's shield to my arm. "We're going to have to jump for it." My idea was simple and insane. As the boat struck, we would use its force like a springboard to jump the gate. I'd heard of people surviving car crashes that way, getting thrown thirty or forty feet away from an accident. With luck, we would land in the pool.**

"But you have no luck!" Nico stated

**Annabeth seemed to understand. She gripped my hand as the gates got closer.**

**"On my mark," I said.**

**"No! On my mark!"**

**"What?"**

**"Simple physics!" she yelled. "Force times the trajectory angle—"**

"Good you mentioned math, now Percy won't be able to argue." Thalia nodded at Annabeth who was about to argue than shrugged realizing this was true

**"Fine.'" I shouted. "On _your_mark!"**

**She hesitated ... hesitated ... then yelled, "Now!"**

_**Crack!**_

**Annabeth was right. If we'd jumped when I thought we should've, we would've crashed into the gates. She got us maximum lift.**

**Unfortunately, that was a little more than we needed. Our boat smashed into the pileup and we were thrown into the air, straight over the gates, over the pool, and down toward solid asphalt.**

Several people winced at this.

"Thanks for catching us." Percy whispered to Grover imagining what could have happened if he hadn't

"No problem." Grover muttered

**Something grabbed me from behind.**

**Annabeth yelled, "Ouch!"**

**Grover!**

**In midair, he had grabbed me by the shirt, and Annabeth by the arm, and was trying to pull us out of a crash landing, but Annabeth and I had all the momentum.**

**"You're too heavy!" Grover said. "We're going down!"**

Thalia ticked "You never insult a girl's weight."

"I didn't mean it like that." Grover blushed

**We spiraled toward the ground, Grover doing his best to slow the fall.**

**We smashed into a photo-board, Grover's head going straight into the hole where tourists would put their faces, pretending to be Noo-Noo the Friendly Whale. **

Everyone laughed at the mental image of this.

"Grover the friendly whale, I like the sound of that." Thalia laughed

**Annabeth and I tumbled to the ground, banged up but alive. Ares's shield was still on my arm.**

**Once we caught our breath, Annabeth and I got Grover out of the photo-board and thanked him for saving our lives. I looked back at the Thrill Ride of Love. The water was subsiding. Our boat had been smashed to pieces against the gates.**

**A hundred yards away, at the entrance pool, the Cupids were still filming.**

**The statues had swiveled so that their cameras were trained straight on us, the spotlights in our faces.**

**"Show's over!" I yelled. "Thank you! Good night!"**

Apollo wolf whistled before giving a round of applause that was followed by everyone else in the room

"Impressive." Clarisse admitted grudgingly

**The Cupids turned back to their original positions. The lights shut off. The park went quiet and dark again, except for the gentle trickle of water into the Thrill Ride of Love's exit pool. I wondered if Olympus had gone to a commercial break, or if our ratings had been any good.**

"That's what you were thinking?" Annabeth hissed at Percy who blushed

"Um…yes?"

"You're ratings were amazing." Hermes told the book

"Yeah, highest ratings since Troy." Zeus nodded

**I hated being teased.**

"Really, you didn't seem to mind when I do it?" Thalia questioned

"I do, but you do it so much I have literally learned to block it out." Percy replied

**I hated being tricked. And I had plenty of experience handling bullies who liked to do that stuff to me. I hefted the shield on my arm and turned to my friends. "We need to have a little talk with Ares."**

Grover finished closing the book

"Maybe we should eat breakfast and change first, we can catch up." Athena said gesturing at the half-bloods who were half asleep and still in their pajamas

"Good idea." Connor said jumping up and already running to the kitchen

"I'll make blue waffles." Sally offered

"Blue?" Apollo questioned

"It's a tradition." Percy smiled at his mom who grinned at him proudly

**What is your favorite quote from Percy Jackson?**

**Answers will be told next update…**

**And the answer for "Who is your favorite character minus Percy?" is…**

**Nico-3 votes**

**Annabeth and Thalia-2 votes**

**Artemis, Leo, Grover, Zoe, Travis, Connor, and Malcolm-1 vote**

**Hope you think the people I added were good, comment, review, favorite, alert, whatever.**


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